Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations YBH culling

Noticed this school of YBH while checking the pond with the drone.

Drove down and quickly dispatched them.

I wonder if that school was a combination of several different fish spawning, that merged together?

Closest I've ever seen to that is a mass of tadpoles.

I agree, the pictures are not that good, I should have spread them out on concrete so it would be more evident.
I spread them out on the ground just to make sure there was nothing but bullheads.

That was also why I included the picture of the one individual in my hand.

Since they were so dark I was thinking maybe they are Black Bull heads but I've never caught anything but Yellow Bullheads.
Here's a picture I took on July 15th 2024 of a much smaller school. I've never seen one as large as the one yesterday. That's why I was asking if it might be a combination of fry from multiple fish that spawned.

How are your bass doing? They will eat the whole batch of the bullheads. Years ago I had 100's of balls of bullheads like that each year in my lake, now none. If your bass are doing good they will take care of them. I think they gather together by size. I would put a worm under a bobber and throw to a swarm. I would catch different sizes from each swarm. Some were 5 inches long.

We get swarms like that in our pond. They seem to be good food for other stuff. I catch large bullheads while jigging fairly often, but they haven't taken over.

LMB are doing good, I have a very low population of LMB and have counted as many as 200 YBH over 8 inches when feeding.

Every time our watershed gets full and the ponds upstream overflow I get a new influx of YBH and GSF. No other neighbors manage or stock their ponds.

I had a fish management company in Kansas that told me they actually put them in ponds if they don't have them to help with LMB growth. I'd just prefer to feed and catch fish I want to eat.

Very interesting concept! (I have no idea whether it is true or not?)

YBH are certainly going to grow on different small forage than BG. Therefore, in theory, you would be providing even more forage to your growing bass.

I like the concept, IF YBH are a good "starter" forage for bass, but will eventually be eliminated from the mature fishery like Fathead Minnows. (Like you said, you want to feed and catch the fish you want. You do NOT want a significant proportion of your pond carrying capacity taken up by a large mass of bullheads.)

I don't think your current bass are eating many of the 8"+ bullheads. However, the bass may be slurping down the smaller bullheads. By next year, your bass should be able to eat all but the largest YBH.

IMO, you should keep tracking your YBH population. I think your pond could provide a valuable data point regarding the "stocking YBH" concept you were told by the fish management company.

P.S. Have you ever flown your drone at dawn or dusk when you have just enough light to see into the pond. I would think you might observe bass hitting the bullhead balls. I don't know if bullheads would jump like shad, or if they scatter and go deep, or even if they just remain in a swirling ball to confuse the attacking predators. Would be a very cool video to me if you actually captured that event.

I track the number and pounds of all species removed. I've removed at least 36 YBH (23.73#) and 69 GSF (14.99#)

I do fly the drone at dusk and dawn as much as possible. I've caught bass blowing up on something a few times but never was close enough to tell what it was.

It is already pretty enlightening to see what images you have been capturing with your drone! Also, excellent job tracking your fish culling efforts. IMO you will be capable of observing the future population changes in your pond just by comparing your data over time.

However, clearly this is the time to deploy combined forces for your operations. The aerial drone needs to record the bass/forage interactions. Your boat drone needs to then sweep through the area with a net to collect samples of of the forage. Your submarine drone can capture underwater video of the interactions from a different point of view.

I wouldn’t worry much about them. They go everywhere in a school and are easily picked off by larger fish. When I see those, I consider them groceries.

Established predator populations eliminate bullheads from personal experience.

Very interesting thread!

Learnin has heard from some pond management people that advise to deliberately stock YBH for forage in a pond.

Two members then reply on personal experience that YBH may be good forage/groceries and are easily eliminated as the sport fish get larger.

Yet I do not ever recall a post on Pond Boss recommending bullheads as a forage stocking? And, I have seen several threads about eliminating bullheads.

Yet another mystery wrapped in an enigma. I assume there are certain situations where they may be a large net positive, and then other situations, with only slightly different conditions, where the bullheads are a huge net negative.

Also, I don't know if the behaviors and recruitment of bullheads vary significantly between blacks, browns, and yellows?

Rod, thanks for asking the questions.

I took your advice and recorded one of the schools today.

I did not realize that YBH protect their young. I recorded it in this video. There are 2 fish protecting the swarm.
I saw a BG come in towards them and one of them chased it out. According to Google. Yellow Bullheads are known for their parental care, with both the male and female actively protecting their eggs and young fry. The parents will guard the nest, fan the eggs to aerate them, and after hatching, the male will herd the fry into schools and protect them until they are large enough to fend for themselves.

I caught this school and transplanted them in another small BOW on the property. My wife was with me and said "no don't dump them out" I dropped a couple in the third netting and when she tried to pick them up she was finned three times and it drew blood. She said, OK you can get rid of all of those. LOL

Thanks for the pics and videos. Agree with FishinRod on the topic.

Learnin,

That is a great video of the two armed security guards protecting the "school"!

Much more educational than merely reading about it.