By Bill Cody
""the system as natural and clean as possible.""
That is a pretty difficult thing to do when wanting to produce an "regular quality" fishery. The two goals are at opposite ends of the pond management spectrum. High quality fishery - high nutrient inputs. Low nutrient inputs - low number (poundage) fishery. You can produce some high quality fish in clear water. However you cannot produce very many fish in clear water. So goes the nutrients, so goes the fishery. Plus in a clear water system, each year those reproducing fish numbers have to be carefully managed to low numbers so each one gets plenty of food to eat for growth. Too many fish require lots more food.
See this Archives thread about pond Carrying Capacity
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92440#Post92440The more turbid the water the more presence of suspended solids of many different types that the household water treatment system has to remove. Treatment system filter changes are more frequent the cloudier the water becomes.
I help manage all types of ponds, each with a different goal of water clarity. Some of the household water use systems the water clarity ranges from 6ft to 14ft. Those clearest water ponds do not get any fish food inputs. Fish feeding inputs result in measurable nutrient increases that increases the entire pond productivity, reduces water clarity which is their purpose. Some of the house water use ponds I help with do have good fisheries. Some will feed around only of bag of food per year and focus on low panfish (YP) recruitment so all remaining panfish grow quickly. They also carefully monitor and minimize the water inputs of windblown organic material inputs (nutrient sources). Some owners will Feed just enough to keep a slightly higher number of quality panfish growing. We have learned that involves the correct amount of predatory pressure for properly thinning each year's recruitment. Manual thinning of panfish by beach seining and/or trapping is often needed. Those pond's are mainly focused on proper panfish harvest not predator harvest. The predators are just mainly tools used in the 'pond tool box'. It is important to know the predatory habits of each predator and what they are capable of eating each year so predation pressure primarily regulates the panfish recruitment for the goals of the fishery.
The clearest water ponds do not grow very many fish due to low nutrients that regulate the entire pond ecosystem, Those ponds have unique fisheries of " top down" types of fish management and the allowed vegetation is designed and managed to not get overly abundant. Rooted plants compete for nutrients with plankton. Clearest water ponds have some type of nutrient absorbing submerged vegetation that reduces suspended microscopic plankton. Basically one cannot grow lots of fish in clear water due to the pond's low carrying capacity and low nutrient content plus the owner has to continually focus on minimizing organic and nutrient inputs. Ponds are nutrient accumulating systems; once nutrients are in they are very very difficult to physically remove. Nutrients grow plants. The more nutrients - the more plants that include planktons. Clearest waters have low nutrient content and some type of submerged vegetation types that naturally compete with plankton and filamentous algae that are the main causes of less water clarity (transparency). High amounts of filamentous algae usually results in more clear water because it competes for nutrients with the plankton community, tending to starve it out.
Depending on the amount of fish harvest desired (goals), If I had had your new pond, I would know about and consider stocking forage minnows/shiners, ONLY female YP and few if any predators. Mixed gender YP are for a higher annual harvests. The female only concept is done with LMB fisheries to grow trophy LMB. All female YP would grow big relatively quickly depending on population numbers and food quantity. Every YP would be a close to trophy fish. They are stocked as 7"-8" fish. Good catch and release angling is possible, Numbers management is easily controlled by YOU not the fish. Harvest some and then replace that number with appropriate fish that are harvested. Problem is with this concept is you have to find a special farm that will sell you just female YP. They do exist but are rare. Whenever you decide to stop regularly buying just females just stock some mixed sex YP and then deal with all the issues of recruitment control and predator management. Starting with just female YP, you can always later go to mixed sex fishery. Can't do that when starting with a mixed gender fishery.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 09/03/26 04:52 PM.
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