Hey Guys,
First off, thanks for all of the great info shared here! Guys freely giving their time and knowledge to help others improve their ponds is a wonderful thing.
So I have been asked to help manage a 66 acre lake. I am an avid outdoorsman who loves hunting and fishing. I am also the slightly OCD type who does as much research as he can before jumping into a project. This pond was dug during the 4 lane construction of I-74 in NC around 9 years ago. The water was tested by NC DNR and deemed good for recreation, cattle, fish, etc. I do not have the water report but have asked to get a copy of it. It is spring fed in sandy land with no runoff or dam � basically just a hole in the ground. The owner told me that when they reviewed his water quality report he was informed that there must be an underground runoff. The water clarity is +3� but the owner does not want to fertilize at this time � his wife likes the clear water
. We are planning to put up 4 or 5 feeders to help support the pan fish. There is little to no structure and only sparse vegetation. I plan to take a trip next week to do more research on what vegetation is in the shallow areas. I have come up with a plan to build pvc structure to place throughout the pond for a reasonable cost. One of my current questions for you guys is where to put this structure to best help the pan fish? I�ll include a pic of my planned structure for the shallower areas. I�ll also include a few pics of the lake and a topo I created with my Lowrance and Insight Genesis.
The pond was not stocked but I have caught green sunfish, pond chubs, and redfin shiners with my cast net. The green sunfish seem to be in abundance in the 2�-3� size and we have caught a few hand sized on bettlespins. We thought about rotenoning the lake and trying to start from scratch but the cost was more than we can handle.
I had a friend who drained his 3 acre pond to rotenone and restock so I worked a deal to catch/buy his fish to transfer to �my� lake. With a lot of hard work and a sore arm from throwing the cast net 19,000 times, we transferred:
217 large bream
201 large shellcracker
120 small bream/shellcracker
6 pound bass
4 pound bass
1.5 pound bass
Thru discussion with several sources �including local pond management companies- we plan to attack the green sunfish population with competition and predators. We are considering stocking up to 10,000 CNBG/RES now and having a pond analysis �including electrofishing sample- done by the Pros next spring. We will hold off on stocking any LMB until we have the evaluation done. Is this a solid plan? Or would you recommend doing the analysis now and hold off on the CNBG until next year?
Our goal is to have a well balanced pond with good bream/shell cracker/bass populations and size. Taking kids out to catch a good mess of hand sized bream with an occasional slab is the goal. The same for the bass would be our secondary goal.
Thanks in advance for your help and I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
