Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Forage pond survey

Thanks to Snrub! I watched the video he recommended and was able to throw the small cast net successfully enough.

My forage pond is supposed to be a FHM only pond. Thanks to a few floods of my older refurbed pond, my forage pond that empties into it now has BG and LMB. I took out about 15 three inch class BG and one 3.5" LMB, and put into my older pond

Then I decided to sample my newer pond which is supposed to contain FHM, BG, RES stocked in March '17, plus the seven CC I stocked back in April this year. The first couple of throws I got BG as expected, then, on two successive throws I got a six inch and a five inch LMB. I put the LMB in my older pond.

I guess if one has ponds that spill into each other in a chain, one is going to get what I have. Chain = forage pond built Nov '15, pond renovated August '15, then the pond built December '16.

That's strange how two ponds so close together can have so much variation in visibility. The one one bottom left resembles my pond a lot. How big is it?

The two larger ones are 1/4 acre each.

Clear one is 11 feet deep when full, and other is 8.5 feet. The forage pond is 4 feet deep.
I can refill the forage pond with clear creek water and overnight it will be muddy again. I think the FHM and crawdads rummaging around the bottom keep both the muddy ponds stirred up.

The LMB in the clear pond have wiped out the FHM and crawdads there. But again, it has always been fairly clear, even the first year after renovation. A small amount of gray sludge was left in the bottom crushed into the hard clay after renovation. Something in that may be causing it to settle. I can stir up the bottom wading around the edges, and it will clear and settle in a couple or three hours. My pond builder said ponds that clear like that have springs in them, but I cannot find any evidence of that.

My pond is slightly smaller and 12' deep and does the exact same thing. I definitely don't have a spring in mine. Had some turbidity until after the Harvey flood, which turned it tannic brown. It's olive green now, at least on top. If I use my outboard to stir it up it'll turn more brown again, but after a few days it's green again. Even after spreading 500# of lime, it was green and clearer again in just a few days. Visibility has gone as deep as 4 feet.

My FHM population is minimal and I haven't seen any crawfish sign in months. Besides hand feeding a small amount once a day, they are feeding mainly on fry and YOY.

John I get a lot more success with the cast net if I feed the fish several minutes ahead of time. Even the RES if they are not eating the feed I think follow the feeding activity of the other fish.

I also have the best luck just before sundown. I have tried casting it mid day but have very little luck. Seems like just before sundown the fish are actively feeding and congregating near the shore where I can capture them best in the net.

Mike, the visibility in my renovated pond (the left one in the picture) exceeded ten feet last winter. That made it very easy for the otters to get all my albino CC.

This one was dug and filled the fall/winter of '16, so it's still just a baby. So far, the only unwanted visitors I've had were a couple of 2' gators which were promptly persuaded to leave. I'm only 1/4 mile from a bayou, and while I know there are a few otter around, so far I think the fence and my three dogs have done a good job of policing the property. Time will tell. It'll be interesting to see what it does this winter. The 4' visibility I had was just recently, during our 10 week drought. Lost about 20" of water, but it's full again now that we got a bunch of rain. Still, it didn't muddy up at all and visibility is around 2'. Hoping to have aeration soon.