Before I get into the management plan I�ll talk a bit about the stocking levels at the club pond since some people had comments about that.
When we made the decision about the stocking levels I took several scenarios to the members. I basically gave them my best SWAG at what growth rates and catch rates would be with each scenario�.how much it would cost upfront and ongoing�.and how high the risk level was for failure.
Being the maverick group of guys they are, everyone wanted to try DEFCON 1 and see how it would work.
Lets talk again about the feed trained bass first (which they are not so much feed trained anymore, so prob best to just start calling them northern/native LMB) Of the 300 original bass we were estimating that about the best 150-175 would be left in after the cull (and after my trip this morning and looking at the log book for the past few weeks, I think we are very close to that level � I only caught a few runts from the initial stocking this morning and had 2 very small culls from reproduction that my friend caught while fishing a beetle-spin for big BG � this from catching 37 bass total with an average weight�.I�m guessing just over 3lbs � I have not punched them all in to calculate the average yet�I need a nap before I embark on any serious math.
So, assuming we get down to 175 native LMB and a target growth rate of 1lb per year - we will need them to eat about 10lbs of forage to hit the 1lb goal � assuming it is the right size forage and they don�t have to chase it too hard � so that�s 1750 lbs per year.
Now, the 50 pure Florida�s need to be fed too. These fish we want to see grow at 2lbs per year so they need 20 lbs each�so that�s another 1000 lbs.
Now, we stocked the bluegill so heavy numbers wise because we wanted to have a lot of 6� fish when the Floridas went in (and the bigger natives were hurting them from the very beginning too � understand those initial 15K stockers were smaller than the goldfish)�.and we knew they would get thinned down heavily. I never mentioned this before but we also stocked 500 �jumbo� bluegill that were 6�+ with the 15K smaller ones. These went in a little too big for the feed trained too eat and the idea was that these would be the ones that would stick around for the kids too catch as nice BIG CNBG. So long story short, is that the initial CNBG stocking had a purpose and they have served it pretty well and they have been hit hard�..very hard.
So, lets go back to the overall forage picture. We now need 2750 lbs per year to support our bass growth objectives. We will manually add that much forage each year and then allow the CNBG (and next year Tilapia) to push us over the top and hopefully give the native LMB a chance at 1.5lb per year and maybe let the Shaquille O�neil of the Floridas get to 3lb per year (rare I know)�.also, we know that every native won�t just eat 10lbs and every Florida 20�so the CNBG and tilapia just round it out to make sure everyone can find a snack when they want one.
Now, notice the only fish we take into account here are the original stocking (ie we don�t have any food plans for the natural reproduction fish). The goal is to get them out as fast as possible before they hit the middle/top of our food chain where our native LMB and Floridas are feeding. (I know this is not really a �food chain� because we manually adjust with forage � so I am using our normal management jargon here very loosely at best) But what I mean here is that, I don�t care if the reproduction munches on some fry but I don�t want them getting big enough to eat my mature goldfish and GS. This year, we still had a high enough CNBG population to really hit the bass fry but to make sure we don�t mess this up we will keep 100% of bass regeneration caught while fishing and we will also cull 100% found during an annual electrofishing survey (which we are scheduled to do in October). Then, as to offset mortality we will come back and do some supplemental stocking to control the population right where we want it. Also, I�m gonna risk some loss of tilapia and try to get them in as early as possible next year because I hear they can hurt the LMB spawn if they are present in early spring�we will see.
As some of you guys pointed out�our biomass levels are very very high (esp right after these big forage stockings�and then in the time that follows, imagine the waste being produced�not to mention the pellet feed). I don�t think you will find this management plan in a book (to be honest, I�m not even sure this would classify as a �management plan��I�m not sure what you�d call it) and to be honest, when I gave the guys this scenario I told them to think of it as a 50-50 that we would have a catastrophic fish kill within the first year because of ammonia levels. So far so good...but I still would never recommend this plan to anyone else without saying be prepared to lose 100% of your pond and have to start over...it is a BLAST to fish the place, but it comes with a high level of risk.
Also, just to put this out there�I am �living on the edge� with my flow through rates again just like last summer. I was very busy on my place and didn�t get the well permit over the winter so the well is not in yet�.and it is dry right now�I could really use some big rain. If I mess this up, it may be because I didn�t get that well in during the winter.
The trip this morning was good. The fish were active and caught on spinner baits early and then soft plastics as the sun got over the trees. Catching the native LMB is pretty easy as you can imagine�.just fish the brush piles within close range of the feeders (6 feeders total) but the Floridas were nowhere to been seen this morning. The largest fish I caught was a 5lb 5oz native but about 80% of my fish were over 2.5lbs and about half over 3lb. My partner was throwing some smaller baits and his average size was a bit less and his top fish was 4lb 6oz I think. All-in-all, it was a good morning to be out.
One thing worth pointing out is that these natives have been in here for a little over a year now�when you drop them into a pond with this much forage their weight artificially jumps at first because they just gorge themselves and get so fat�then, they kinda slow down. So I think we are averaging just over 1lb of true growth on these fish and then we got the benefit of about a 33% �jump� on the fish when we first put them in (so a fish put in with a 3lb frame wuickly added about 33% of her original stocking weight and got to 4lb and now she has added about 1lb of frame growth to become a 5lb fish). I�m guessing the Floridas have done the same thing with the jump because they were not really that overweight when they went in, but we have not seen one of the real big ones yet that went in as an 8lb fish (were only 4 of those). Another thing worth note is that we don�t fish with live bait�I know the best bait to catch a big Florida would be a 6 inch goldfish�.but we are already fishing in a barrel, so we gotta keep some sport in it�lol
