Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations HSB Population?

George - This is how I would do it for your particular situation. You should know about how many stockers you put in the pond. At about 4"-6" initial size in a clean pond with forage fish I would "assume" at least 80%-90% survival on the low side. Subtract what you have removed and remainder is what is still in there. This number is a rough guess. Number of hits method of estimation of density could work but hits would have to be tabulated (estimated) within a one second period. HSB swim pretty fast and I think the same fish could easily create two "hits" within a two or three second period.

Example - 200 stockers minus 20 next day mortality, minus 40 (20% latent morts) equals abt 140 + -. Any number over 120 would be decent for your first attempt; 100 fair, and 60-80 poor.

Are you planning on draining the pond before restocking? Catching 90% of what reamins on hook and line and not draining and seining could be almost as challenging as cast netting.

I just drained a 7ft deep pond (60'x220') down to 20x157 and 16" deep. Seined it carefully twice. Killed what remained and got about a 5 gal bucket of fish that were bigger than the seine's mesh size. 98% of largest fish (greater than 5") were removed by seining.