This was a post I made about what I had going on is response to the PB article about Tony Stewarts pond:
I loved the Tony Stewart article because it reinforced a management plan for a recent project I headed up.
I recently renovated a 3 acre pond at our club.
We only have a few members, but they are all busy and don't have much time to come out and fish so we wanted to manage the pond to allow high catch rates with big fish as fast as possible.
Our goals were very similar to #20 and it was funny how our management plans ended up similar as well.
We stocked 300 feed trained LMB with an average weight of about 2lbs (smallest 1lb - largest 3.5lbs).
In addition, we stocked 15,000 3-4 inch bluegill and 2000 lbs of goldfish (with the plan to stock goldfish on an as needed basis as a slow and easy meal - the goldfish are so bright in color that they allow me to keep a constant eye on my forage situation without having to electro-survey too often). We also aerated with 7 bubble stations to maximize the water column.
We feed the pond about 25lbs of high protein aquamax each day and we are flushing about 75-100 gallons per minute of water. At a few dry points this summer our flush rate got a little too low for comfort. Since we are managing such a high biomass and feeding so heavily, our primary concern and limiting factor is water quality. This problem will be eased by next summer with a well installation over the winter.
So far, so good. We are catching bass that are running about 50% overweight. I'd say the pond gets about 5-8 hours of "real" fishing per month and maybe another 3-5 of just messing around with kids and guests from the dock.
If I go out and fish hard, I average about 30 bass per hour (prob closer to 60 per hour if I fish the feeders) We have 5 feeders with one going off every 15 minutes in order around the pond and I swear I think the fish follow the feeders and I can catch the aggressive ones 2-3 times in a trip around the pond.
The fish were stocked in May and our 3.5lb original fish are just a few ounces shy of 5lbs now...hopefully they will put on those extra few ounces before the weather turns cold.
We will harvest about 200lbs of the feed trained bass before winter. This was the plan all along, to basically allow the strongest and best fish to establish themselves. We will shoot for harvesting based on a % overweight versus just raw weight...meaning, I'd rather take out a 3lb skinny fish that has not adapted well and leave the 2lber that looks like a football.
I have been told that the feed trained bass will "top out" around 7lbs so we are planning to stock some non-feed trained bass during the winter (which is why I am culling down some of the original pellet trained stocking). These new fish will need to be at least 2lbs to make sure they don't become a meal for a 5lb pellet bass. These fish will be tagged and they will be the ones we hope to raise to 10lb+ trophy size (the magic number for a BIG fish here in SC).
For those that are curious, our bass are feeding actively on both live forage and pellets. We were actually out sampling bass (via rod & reel) today and almost every bass had both live forage and pellets in their belly. We believe the larger fish have made an exclusive switch to live forage and the smaller ones are feeding more on just the pellets. The ones that have stayed exclusive on the pellets are the least overweight (and most likely to be fried in my October harvest season).
Our blugill are doing great, and the pond is loaded with fry from the recent spawnings. When the feeders go off, it is like a war zone with the bluegill and goldfish trying to grab pellets while dodging the bass (trust me, the bass will take targets of opportunity when coming in to feed on the pellets and for those not interested in the pellets at all, they know that the feeder sound schools up their dinner for easy pickin).
Anyway, I guess I'll hush. I just wanted to post a little bit about our pond since it was similar to the Tony Stewart story.
I'm actually building my first ponds this year (the one above was a re-stocking of a pond built in the 50's). I hope to get 3 "stair step" ponds (2-3 acres each) done in the next year with another two 1-acre levee ponds up on a hill.
Right now I am getting a detailed topo survey completed (all I have is the old forest service topo map) so we can have exact dam placement. I will also be putting in a well to ensure adequate water to keep the ponds flushed (I feel pretty good about the watershed, but the well will help me sleep easier at night). My biggest concern right now is running into rock, so I'll also be getting some test holes dug in the next few weeks to make sure that is not a problem...I think I'll be good on clay for the cores.
I have a pretty good understanding of management for fishing purposes (both ultra aggressive like the one above and more natural balance management) but the construction process is new to me, so my fingers are crossed. I have a great consultant helping me (from Texas) so hopefully all will go well...my obvious concern there is the distance and him not being able to "drop-in" on my project so I'll have to do a lot of ground work myself (I am looking forward to the challenge), but I trust his advice and knowledge so much more than I do local SC advice. Guys around here just don't take ponds as serious as you boys in Texas...so, I had to seek help from the lone star state. I hope to also become a more active member here, and let you guys chime in on my project as you see fit...I know sometimes too many cooks can spoil the broth, but I am a firm believer that you can never have too much advice...just gotta be smart enough to pick the best advice to follow.
These new ponds are mine personally and they will be managed naturally from the ground up with a few years forage management before introducing the best LMB genetics I can get my hands on. I have a 4 year old son, and my goal is for him to hold every line class record in the state (including the all-tackle state record) from these new ponds by the time he turns 18....gotta have goals, right....oh yeah, may throw in the state BG records while we are at it.
Anyway, thanks for all the great posts...if I can be of any help to anyone, I'll do my best.
-Jeff
