Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Managing Bluegill in a 1 acre pond question?!

We put in the archives links to State Pond Mgt sites like the one mentioned above. They are a good resource but need to be understood in context. They all originated many years ago as a source for info on food production from ponds (not recreational fishing). Most have evolved and have been updated but because it is a public resource development link the advice is still for mostly unmanaged waters. They do not usually put in cutting edge ideas as that does not fit in their public service mandate. One example is the old 10/1 rule for stocking BG/LMB. This has been replaced by science based on stocking on a goal basis. Harvest should also be based on goals and your facts. Guidelines are good but it all depends !

I have clipped a lot of tail and sometimes dorsal fins on GSF and BG to make them easy prey although I have gotten lazy lately and done less of it. I find it easiest done by using a cheap pair of Harbor Freight scissors that are about 7" long. As I pull the fish out of the water if it is a size that I want to clip I just grab the fish in left hand while it is still on the hook, clip the desired fins with scissors, remove the hook and toss the fish back in. If you keep the scissors handy it takes less than 10 seconds per line caught fish. For most people probably 5 seconds but I am slow.

I do it as opposed to otherwise destroying a fish I was going to cull anyway. If the scissors are not handy I throw them on the bank for the raccoons.

I do not claim fin clipping is a major good or beneficial thing pond wise. I was just brought up by a depression era parents to not waste things and recycling the fish food I feed these fish by turning the unwanted fish into dedicated fish food just seemed like the right thing to do based on my upbringing. Or considering that I spend hundreds of dollars on fish food each year I am just too damn cheap to waste them.

Thanks Ewest for the clarification!!

You can feed yourself (family /friends) or the fish or the coons et al - all have to eat. Responsible pond mgt requires harvest of fish by something. Of course IMO a big waste is to let them die of old age and feed the FA. Even that has pluses as it adds nutrients back into the system. Bottom line all the energy (sunlight to fish) is going somewhere one way or another. No waste as its a question of who gets a meal.