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Thread Like Summary
ewest, FishinRod
Total Likes: 2
Original Post (Thread Starter)
#569717 08/28/2024 2:26 PM
by Abaggs
Abaggs
I have a 20 acre pond in eastern VA with a max depth of 10', and average depth of around 7'. The pond has excellent cover throughout. There's currently largemouth, bluegill, crappie, chain pickerel, and pumpkinseed in the pond. I've been told by two different hatcheries that tiger musky will survive, and its been recommended to stock 1/acre at 10-12". What are yall's thoughts on wether than can handle the water temps in eastern VA, and what affect do you think this stocking would have on my trophy largemouth. The state recommends removing 10 bass/acre/year 12-16". Would the musky help with this? Just curious to your thoughts as I'd love to be able to add these fish if it makes sense. Any feedback would be greatley appreciated.
Liked Replies
#569723 Aug 28th a 04:06 PM
by FishinRod
FishinRod
Sounds like a great pond to me!

Do you and family/friends have the ability to fish and remove 200 bass per year in your slot? I would think so.

I think tiger musky are pretty smart predators, but I am not sure you can teach them to read your slot limit rules. grin If you remove the bass yourself, then you can control the numbers and assume some annual number of natural morts, to have a pretty good idea on "bass removed".

I am definitely NOT an expert on your type of fishery. However, I think I would want my chain pickerel to thrive. They can eat your small crappie if your pond ever starts moving toward a stunted crappie situation. They should also eat some of the smaller bass, so you can have more of you total bass carrying capacity in larger fish. Have the chain pickerel spawned in your pond?

The chain pickerel record for Virginia is under 8#. The musky record is over 45#. That fish would eat whatever it wanted to eat in your pond.

IMO, I would see how well the pond was achieving my fishing goals with the current mix of fish. If something is off, perhaps you could add musky later. (I have no idea if large bass would eat a 12" stocked musky, or if they are too quick.)

OTOH, if you wanted to have trophy tiger musky as one of your bonus fish, perhaps a 20-acre pond is just big enough to pull that off!
1 member likes this
#569729 Aug 28th a 06:10 PM
by ewest
ewest
Here you go - study on TM thermal max.

All keep in mind that survival is not the only important question. Most fish species stocked into a temperature stressed location will not grow well even if they survive. Fish under stress tend to do poorly.

http://seafwa.005.neoreef.com/Docum...ts/2018%20Journal/J5_03Snowetal17-22.pdf
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