Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Where are my fish?

Wow!..and Snrub had them on his old pond for 3 weeks! I can see how it is possible they wiped it out! Might be why they eventually left.

Yes Cormorants can cause lots of damage. They usually will eat the 1 lb fusiform type fish first like CC or LMB.

John,I probably shouldn't say this on here but if it was my pond,I think one way or another the otters would run out of luck.

Bob,
I am going to just let it be. If I don't have otters, then I will probably get cormorants. If I lose all the fish, then I won't buy feed any more.

The Lonoke fish farms are having terrible problems with cormorants. I think they have nets over some of their ponds.

I talked to them about otters too. They said fences won't stop otters. They can dig and climb, and are persistent.

If it wasn't for all the protections and reintroductions of not so rare predators, we wouldn't have these pond problems.

That large group landed on my main pond a couple times and before I got out to run them off they would synchronize dive and it appeared they were hunting in an orchestrated attack like you describe. How many times they landed while we were gone I have no idea.

Threw some feed out today again at the old pond and still very little activity. A few small fish very timidly taking feed and several catfish of some persuasion.

I think I am going to start catching 5-7" BG out of my main pond where I have an abundance and transfer a few hundred to this old pond. Whatever fish are left are going to repopulate the pond in a year or two so I want to make sure the GSF and BH do not get ahead of BG like happened before.

My biggest fear is they also got my SMB and RES in the pond right next to this old pond. I have seen no activity other than FHM. I take that back. I did see some cleared circles in the FA that could have been fresh nests. Will have to check again when the sun is overhead to see if fish were on them.

staked a Coyote decoy, hopefully to deter Herons and Geese.
I'll let you know the results

Your fish ever show up?
Set up a feeder that throws on a schedule. Just have it run for a few seconds at two feedings a day. What fish are there will start showing up pretty quick if you get a regular schedule.

Good luck