Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations PB Article on Bullheads?

Since bullheads invaded my pond this year, I searched this site and found out that I am not alone. It seems that there are number of ponds that get are close enough to other, unmanaged waters, to get periodically invaded by bullhead, carp and who knows what.

I wonder if there are enough people with this problem to warrant Pond Boss article on the topic. In retrospect, the thing to do would have been to seine them out while they were not fearful of humans and stayed in tight groups. There are posts saying that bass will eat them only before their pectoral and dorsal fin spikes harden and other that say they eat them even after that. As far as I know, I provided no spawning habitat. I have pallets for the minnows and gravel for the bluegill. So limiting spawning habitat does not seem too effective. Are there effective methods of allowing water to flow in/out of a pond without allowing fish to get through? Like a small step on the spillway?
Is LMB and fishing pressure on the survivors enough? Will this ruin my catfish fishing, because I will catch by channels and blues more often? Will all the cats in my pond become so hook shy that this will not be effective after a while? (exactly how do they tell each other about this anyway?)

I'm only informed enough to answer one of the questions: Bullheads don't need any special habitat. They will build nests on the bottom of the pond.

Thanks Ric,

I figured as much. Reproductive instincts are hard to stop. I hope my channels and blues had babies also. If I have to put up with the bad, I hope I got some good with it as well...

I never thought about building a step on the back side of my spillway until I wrote the last e-mail. The more I think about it, the more I like it.

FYI - Fish can secrete chemicals into the water that act as signals to communicate to other fish. The chemicals are currently thought to be specific to each species of fish. Thus each species recognizes basically only the chemicals produced by their own kind. Numerous studies have been performed on this topic in past years. Some recent studies have worked with pike and minnows and predatory and escape behaviors.

Some fish are more sensitive to smells than other fish.