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I have an 8 acre lake in southern Illinois. The pond was built in 1990, I purchased the property last May. Long story short the pond had a serious problem of overcrowded channel catfish. I have taken out over 5,000 catfish since I purchased the property. Last year I took out around 3,000. I put in 500 3-5 inch bluegill and 1,500 bluegill 5-8 inch range and 100 bass 10-14 inches. This year i have taken out over 2,000 catfish and stocked another 1,000 3-5 in bluegill and 100 5-8 inch bass.
What I have notice so far :
I can finally catch a decent amount of bluegills when fishing. The bluegills have spawned successfully several times and there are all different size classes. The bass seem to be doing fine. A handful of the larger ones blow up on the gills when I feed (AquaMax 300 twice a day.) there are still too many catfish. I caught 60 out today from one spot on shore.
The catfish range from 4 inches to 4 lbs. the ladder being the exception. Average catfish is 8-12 inches and I can catch them with little effort. The fish obviously spawned successfully over the years and took over. I can’t really seine the pond due to lay downs everywhere. I have purchased a large trap to try waiting for it to come in the mail.
If any of you experienced pond guys have any tips on getting the kitties out I’m all ears. I no I’ll
Never get rid of them but if I can get there numbers down to a “nice bonus fish” I’d be very happy. I hope the bass and gill numbers will keep young of the year from
Being future problems.
Sorry for the novel.
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