Ok slow down boys!
Bill- that is based on a 1 acre WELL maintained pond, and congrats on the g-baby. Is this the first? My son is an only g-baby and is rotten to the core. But that is ok. Mom said if she could have been a grandparent before a parent she would have opted that way. You can give in to everything, and then give them back at the end of the day.
Ross- LM Bass and cats are stocked on a 1 to 5 ratio with the bream due to the reproduction rate on the giants (bedding on full moons during the summer [in South Georgia that is beginning to be year round I think, just kidding!]) As I have stated before you only want original giants plus one to two generations to survive.
Big_pond- Believe it! We are here (we were actually invited). I’ll email O’Neal and see if he wants to come on board. We recommend the dye to color the water darker (18 inches down).
Rad- I’m sorry to have to ask, but what do you mean by jc (it’s too early in the morning)? Ken does offer classes ranging from tank culture through frog farming.
Alabama- I hate to sound vague because you are truly looking for an answer, but it varies from pond to pond. I believe Greg agrees with this statement. If everyone will ponder the predator stock rate again, you will realize that it is not necessary to “remove” a certain percentage every year. That’s what predators are for. The goal is to grow the F-1 GGs as large as you can by allowing the predators to consume offspring.
Aaron- Those were most likely offspring because we did not have a dealer set up in that area until about a month ago (and he is in Muncie). We did stock a heck of a lot of ponds up there, and even sold to a Fish Farm in Dale. Who was the dealer? Cassidy? I can’t say for sure what someone else sold you because I was not there, but if you can tell me who it was I will be able to pull his/her invoices and give you a pretty good idea of what you have. Good job on your pond and happy fishing. Please let us know if we can help any other way, or I can recommend you to our new dealer in Muncie. Also you are correct about the cats causing a potential hazard, but down here in the south that is what a lot of people want. Cats can muddy the water, deplete O2, and grow to enormous sizes (68 lb cat caught in our 30 acre pond last fall). I could pull 100 invoices on 1 acre stocks and maybe 8-10 will be identical. Customers do research, read forums, talk to neighbors, listen to suggestions, then stock their ponds. Here in south Georgia (and maybe elsewhere) catfish houses are very popular. You know the routine; take the wife out on a Friday night… Therefore we have a lot of cage raising in this area also. Keep in mind that these are numbers that have worked for us and customers WHO HAVE FOLLOWED THE PROGRAM AND MAINTAINED THEIR POND!!! For the guys and gals who go out to their pond just on the weekends to catch some “time away”, those stocking numbers mentioned above need to be well adjusted. It is a case-by-case situation. PS- don’t forget Ken has been doing this for 40 plus years. We have had success and we have had failure (learning daily), but we are still around. As for the person who posted earlier about our having a bad reputation in Georgia, I am looking at a large map on the wall behind me that has red push pens stuck in each town we have a current delivery order for. There are 27 pins there now (Georgia), with a total of 142 pins throughout the Eastern US. We have happy customers and sad one’s, just like ANY business.
H20fwkillr- email me and I will send you a complete catalog. I am not quite sure exactly what else you are asking. You mentioned something about us “feeding off the uniformed.” I do not agree, in fact we joined this forum for more reasons than to promote/defend our fish. We also joined to offer help, and most importantly to learn from others in this field. I have read several threads, and I do not get the impression that the gentlemen here are uninformed. Quite the opposite I think they are intelligent and well informed (and I am excited about absorbing some of their knowledge). You also mentioned something about the growth rate being just as good on a standard bluegill as a GG. Let me ask you a question; If you were presented with only two women (provided you were a single man) one of whom you had to marry, how would you choose?
Here would be their qualifications:
*First woman- Her mother and father were brother and sister to one another (making them her aunt and uncle also), and her grandparents were first cousins to one another. In fact her family tree pretty much is a straight line.
*Second woman- Raised in a middle-to-upper class family, this lady has an above average IQ, carries herself well, aggressively goes after what she wants, and she has no apparent inbreeding in her family.
This will pretty much sum up the difference between the standard bluegill and the GG. Standard bluegill were here when the Mayflower arrived, with no new bloodline introduced. GG on the other hand are bred true every year.
Dave- Bill answered part of your post, but as far as the pond dye goes let me explain. First of all let me start by stating that I only have taken a few courses in botany (major was biology at GSU [class ‘94]), but I have read several articles lately about the positive and negative effects of phyto and zoo plankton in ponds (including Euglena that mimic red-tide). It appears that the most beneficial plankton live in the top foot or so of water. They are extremely important in ecological balance for both a food and oxygen supply for the pond. During the day as photosynthesis occurs, the plankton will convert carbon dioxide to oxygen. When you run into problems is when the plankton gets so dense in the water that it actually lowers O2 in the water at night (when photosynthesis can not occur). We suggest dying the water below 18 inches to prevent a dense growth of any type (weed, algae, or protozoa). One feeder to the acre pond with the above stated “surface” plankton will suffice, but herein again the customer is the one to make the final call (Lord I sound like a recording on that one).
Sunil- Cute, very Cute! I thought that happened due to an excess of algae growth on the top of the water. Your theory may be better though!
How come no one asked about the Bug-O-Matic?
Thanks for the questions (and the carpal tunnel in my right wrist),
Deb
