Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations "Fish Corral" - quick and dirty

I fed the WM Aqua Max today for the first time. The light wasn't good, but I'm pretty sure they were taking it. I saw one of them feeding off the bottom in the area where I threw the pellets. They all ate BSF larvae on the way down and off of the bottom.

There were even more 1 to 2 inch panfish (would you call these yoy?) today. Could have been as many as 100 in the corral. They're in 2 or 3 separate schools. I think they're using it as a refuge from the hoards of young LMB patrolling the banks. I wonder how attractive that will be when I have dozens of WM in there. I'm thinking I should add a little structure so the WM have a base to ambush from.

Here's a detail of one end of the corral.




I used a T fitting so that I could drive a stake in for an anchor. I have the end at the full pool level. In theory if there was a flooding event the pipe could ride up the stake. I sealed this end with silicone to keep the pipe water tight.

In these videos I'm feeding pellets at the same time as BSF larvae. I still haven't positively seen the WM eat pellets, just pecking the bottom where I threw them.

I don't know how many people actually want to see small panfish in a net eating maggots, but here ya go.




Let this photo serve as a warning to you RES and GSF lovers. There's a new fish in town and it's first name is War.



It may not look like much now, but wait until it's eaten 10 lbs of pellets and BSF larvae.

Neat GW . It looked like some of the small fish were eating also. If so the small BG will teach the WM to eat pellets if they are not already eating them.

What's this world coming to. I'm sittin' here watching and actually enjoying seeing goggle-eyes eating larval treats.

Mmmmmmm. Larval treats.

I still haven't seen the WM taking feed yet but the corral is teaming with yoy brim that are. At first the Gams were in the majority, but now they're pretty scarce for good reason.

I stunned a little brim that was in the minnow trap and tossed it to the WM.



Found a dead WM in the corral today, caught and added WM #6 making the running total 5.

Yesterday I caught number 7, but took out the 2nd known floater. Tonight I caught WM 8, I think. It looked a little different than the others. I would have studied it more but I'm getting worried about the mortality rate of the fish I'm adding.

GW are you moving fish just from the open portion of the pond to the corralled portion or from another pond all together?

jhp, I'm catching the WM from this same pond that the corral is in. I'm not exactly sure at what point, but eventually I'll be transferring them to the little pond which is currently fishless.

I've started handling the fish more carefully now. I'm breaking the barb off the hook, using a soft dip net to handle the fish, and I'm keeping a bucket with me so they get to move in water instead of swinging in the air. I think one of the floaters is the one that took about a 1000 foot (ok, 700) walk (dangle) around the pond with me.

Today I tested out one function of the corral that sets it apart from blocking nets. I pulled the frame halfway onto shore and pulled the chain that's attached to the bottom of the net right up to the bank, dragging it along the bottom. I had only seen 3 fish out of a possible 6 so I wanted to look for holes. After checking the herd I just pushed the frame back out.


I think I counted 5 fish in this video, but at least one of them probably won't survive:

Recently I had a problem that resulted in all but one of the fish escaping. The details are in an edit in the first post of this thread. Currently I have three fish in the corral, two of which were added 2 days ago. These fish all look to be in good health.

Yesterday I fed 2 dozen final-stage BSF larvae and all three fish ate them eagerly. As usual I fed Aqua Max at the same time. Normally the school of fingerling brim that inhabit the corral are the only fish eating the pellets, but this time I saw one WM come to the surface and take pellets. After trying the first pellet it ate 4 more before I had to leave.

It sure was a good feeling to see my corralled WM taking pellets. Between the BSF and the Aqua Max it should be no problem to grow these guys to lunker status.

Edit: Added 1 WM 7/1 bringing the total to 4.

I moved the corral to shallower water because fish were escaping. When a good rain would happen the frame would float up about a foot which I believe was pulling the net up off the bottom. When the big fish would get out I would find 2 - 3 inch panfish inside the netting. If they could get in the others could get out.

When I moved it I waded in and checked the depth more carefully so as not to repeat the problem. I caught one WM that evening and added it to the corral. The next morning there was only 1/2 of it left. It was in good shape when I put it in so I think something killed it. My guess is turtles.

I added netting to the top in two pieces to form a cover. The piece on the deep end of the frame is fastened all around. The section that's close to the bank is attached on only one side so I can open it to add fish. Hopefully I won't lose more fish to predation or flooding now.

I observed something interesting when I moved the corral. Before I had added any fish or fish pellets a large number of fingerlings had congregated inside the netting. This seems to indicate the the corral itself is good structure for small fish. It's almost as if they sense that larger fish can't access the area.

Here's an idea which may or may not have value to a pond boss. You could set up a small netted area like my fish corral which uses deer netting with 5/8 inch mesh. Then feed these small fish heavily until they grow large enough that they can't fit through the mesh. Then you would have feed trained fish which can be easily moved or harvested. It would probably be best to have some traditional fish structure inside the netting to encourage the small fish to stay in.

I don't know what value there would be in doing that, but I think it would work.

Yeah, I know I could just put up blocking nets, or build fish cages, but that would be boring because discovering something new would be unlikely.