Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam Building new forage mini pond

What is the water temp there?

I'm not sure what mine is. I will check it tonight.

Just using a instant thermometer its 88 on the surface.

If you're going to angle for them, you're going to stress them beyond a normal degree. My suggestion would be to haul them in electrolyte to sedate them. Morones are notorious for not handling stress well.

I wondered about the angling stress. I had heard as adult large fish they sometimes fight themselves to death.

Been trying to bring them right in when angling, not letting them "fight" very long to keep the stress to a minimum.

Another thing we did was put a cage in the pond and put them in the submerged holding cage while we were catching enough. Would have thought that would have been better than holding them in the hauling cooler but it did require handling the fish an extra time to transfer them.

Seine would be the best but I do not have a seine big enough to cover the pond. I do have a couple of short seines but not sure I could herd enough up into a corner and catch them that way. Just have to try it and see. I would think they all would just go around the end.

I have a good way to raise them, not so good to collect them.

Maybe straight from throw net to cooler would have been better. As of last night I have lost 12. It still surprises me because most of them took off like rockets.

88° water + angling stress + transport stress. HSB will go belly up in five minutes, in an aerated livewell, when the water temp is above 80°.

Straight to the transport tank with pure O2 injection *might* work now. Think I'd wait until the water temps are below 60° before trying it again.

That very well could be the problem Augie.

My thinking was that I would like to thin them out somewhat at this stage to let the remaining fish have room to grow.

Started out with 500 in a 1/20th acre pond and have taken out about 100.

It has been said here on PBF that you are not an expert till you have killed a lot of fish. Maybe Rstringer and I are just on our journey.................

This might be a dumb question but have you tried trapping them?

I figured out why they died. Just cant figure out why it happened........They quit breathing.... That's as bout as close to an expert opinion that I have. I have heard on here before that bass dont go in traps good. Snrub has had a small trap in there from time to time and as far as I know didnt get any of them. Full of RES and FHM.

According to Lusk, when the water temps hit upper 80's surface, catching them stresses them too much and can cause death. Since only a small % of dead fish float, we seldom realize that we are causing a problem. Unless I have a a cool front for several days, I don't get to fish during the summer.

Ditto on the water temperature was a wee bit too high. Whenever I haul HSB, I use salted water, more so than for regular pond fish, make sure the O2 is going good and don't put more than a few in the net when moving from tank to bucket.

HSB, Golden Shiners and Crappie are very touchy fish to transport. BG/RES are "Goldilocks" fish. Not too hot, not too cold.

Ideally you want water temps to be in the mid to low 60's but then again water temp in the ponds shouldn't be more than 5°F different and not more than 3°F different is ideal. You can't change water temp more than 10°F in 15 min, and then you have to wait 20-30 minutes before changing the temp any more.

Thanks for those replies.

I knew we were pushing the water temperatures but my thinking was I would like to thin the herd a little so there would be less stress on the remaining fish left in the pond.

Heath Lawrence came over the other day but it was after a rain and we only got 2 HSB in cast net throws and none by hook and line. They were not even feeding on the pellets for a couple days because of the weather and water change. He did go home with some larger RES and some small RES caught in the minnow trap though so he did not go home empty handed. He is only a few miles away from me so hopefully the 2 HSB he got survived. He said they swam away anyway so fingers crossed.

Getting the time of year for cooler nights so maybe in another month the water temps will drop some and we will have better success.

I personally prefer long shank hooks. They are easier to remove from the fishes mouth.

By snrub:
Getting the time of year for cooler nights so maybe in another month the water temps will drop some and we will have better success.

31 here right now with snow John. FAR from coolest time of night too..:-)), never seen anything like this in my 54 years.

Wow, that is too cold for this time of year. The cold weather has not reached this far south. We are only getting down to about 60 at night. Hope the farmers crops were far enough along out there. We sure would not be with those kind of temperatures now.

Dave I also liked the longer shank hooks, especially the smaller sizes, because of easier hook removal and less swallowing of the hook. Then I started using jig head hooks and found I had a lot less swallowed hooks with them. Something about the lead head and the angle of attack the fish do not seem to swallow them as badly. Plus I did not have to add split shot to the line to cast them. So I use almost exclusively jig head hooks for my bluegill fishing now.

Another thing that people don't think about is how easy the hook is removed if the barb is bent down with a pair of pliers, or filed off. That makes a heck of a difference.

Getting these HSB caught and transferred to another pond has proven to be tricky. Hook and line works but slow and some days they do not bite. Cast net they have learned to skidaddle before the net captures them.

Maybe when the water gets cold enough and they slow I can get a bunch with the cast net.

A big seine would be the answer but I do not have one. Would have to pump the pond down some too.

9" are the size they are now. If some locals want some if they can figure out how to get them come on. I would like to get them thinned out before the remaining ones over winter in this tiny pond.

Snrub how many more do you think you have in there? I will try and get back over there for some more. Hopefully with the cooler temps it will help the survival rate.

I don't know. I have taken probably 125-150 out. Put 500 in to begin with. I can't imagine there are 350 left as I am sure there would have been some mortality along the way. But just judging on the way they feed on a busy day I would think there are at least a couple hundred left. Too many to over winter in that small pond in my opinion.

If they are still feeding, go buy some Stubby Steves.

Hey John,

Here is a fun fact.

At 9" they are 6 times their original length. The power of the weight function is 3.139 and so the weight multiple is 6^3.139=277.1 ... so 277 times their start weight. Really great growth. I bet both the FHM and RES YOY help with it. Do you recall how much feed went into the forage ponds since stocking the HSB?

Jpsdad I dont know ya but theres one thing i do know. Your smarter than I am lol. That's pretty cool to think about but i never would have before.

Agree with Scott about the Stubby Steves

Have you tried liver as bait? It is supposed to be very appealing to HSB. We can see if it works on small HSB as well as big ones.