Caught one catfish March 16, 2025 that weighed 3.15 pounds and was 21.5" long. Looked healthy (and tasted great!) Since I am new to all this, I was wondering if this was appropriate growth.
One note IMO about CC. Each one of the in a pond takes the place of one LMB. Myself I prefer LMB compared to CC. CC can learn to be pellet hogs. The larger they get the more they eat pellets from the other fish. If you prefer CC vs LMB then keep doing what you are doing. If you like LMB more then start harvesting every CC you catch. The apparent thin body of the CC is probably due to several reasons. 1. Winter slow down of eating, 2. Lack or aggressiveness getting enough food. 3. Plus other unknown reasons.
IMO Some here would say you stocked too many CC and LMB in 0.7ac(as 145/ac) plus not enough BG to adequately feed the LMB for good growth for the long term. Lots of CC stocked means lots of food is going to be needed to keep them growing quickly. Large CC are known to also eat small fish. If it were my pond I would have omitted the CC, stocked only 35-40LMB and used 600-800 CNBG in 0.7ac. I would start removing CC on a regular basis to try and get the numbers down to 10 to maybe 20. You will soon learn that it is a whole lot easier to add CC than to remove them.
The things you can achieve in ponds (not lakes or reservoirs) with a feeding program are vast, and every pond is different, so no assumptions are concrete.
Regarding Channel Cats, my preferred stocking number is 10-15 in a .25 acre pond, so by my experience, you're not too far off that number. Nothing wrong with harvesting CC. Some other considerations are if your CC are spawning, and what size of CC you would need for future stockings to avoid predation by the LMB.
Because it seems like the one CC pictured in your original post may be on the thinner side, and the fact that you do have a feeding program, it may be a good idea to consider your forage base. Trying to amp up the bluegill population via favorable spawning sites and perhaps a size of grower feed would probably benefit your CC and LMB.
You may also want to consider a Golden Shiner Frye stocking which should be available in a few weeks.
If I can get a feel for how much damage the cormorants caused last fall, I'll likely be on the culling train. Hopeful we may get a few female BG this year and if there are some obvious male LMB / underperformers...well they are likely going to come home for supper.
Hopeful that we might find a good weather weekend without crazy home projects soon to fish for a few BG.
I think the growth is very respectable. 1.5 lbs gain per year is good. Also 21.5 inches in two years after stocking at 7" avg length is good too. Might surprise you but the average time it takes a 7" CC to eclipse 20" in OK reservoirs is 6 years. So this is the difference feed is making for them.
There has been mention that the CC was on the light side. When I first checked a table that I acquired some years ago, it implied the CC was 100 RW. But searching another on the web it implied 86 RW. The chart that Jason referenced implies 76 RW. The RW in part depends on which chart is referenced. That said, Jason's fish demonstrates that it has potential to consume more than it did.
So was the CC underfed? I am loathe to suggest that. What we are looking at is a CC that is growing 3 times faster than wild counterparts making a tougher living. You made life a lot easier for them. Should you feed more? That depends on you. What I would tell you is that the CC are competing with your BG and LMB for feed and you will have to feed more than what the CC would need by themselves. It will be harder to push their growth than it will to reduce their competition.
I like that you ate that wonderful CC. Eat some more of them! If you want to grow as much harvest weight of them for the least amount of feed, then crop them heavily. A 12" CC can grow to 2 lbs in a season. The bigger they get, the worse the FCR and harder it is to feed them enough to grow them at the initial rates you observed. It is very likely that if you harvested all you could catch > 18" that some would still grow into larger lengths providing larger fish in the future. You could consider a ladder of 12" CC each year. A lesser density of them to help them grow faster (something like 25 per year) may be a good idea.
Your comments on food per mouth is the point I am making. Your feed rate is low enough that it is contributing only a fraction of what the water is supporting through native nutrients. The density of fish in DPMESAs pond is too high to get similar results even with his additional feeding per acre. The best solution for DPMESA is to lower the density so there will be more food per mouth. His current higher rate of feeding is already helping him get more from his acreage, a lower density of fish will help each to eat more and grow better.
Thank you all for the great info. It seems like there are lots of opinions and some are much better than others. It seems like this group is pretty much "like minded" and the reputable company I purchased my fish from have a different opinion of how to stock a pond. My goal is not necessarily to have huge trophy fish of any specific type. It is more for enjoyment and to have my kids friends want to come over and spend time in the outdoors. On the other hand, I don't want my fish starving and skinny.
So far my biggest take away from this thread is to catch as many of the catfish as I can this summer. While I enjoy catching and eating catfish, it is much more fun to catch and watch the kids catch the BG and the LMB. They get so excited when they catch a LMB.
Hey guys, I had a chance to fish this past weekend and caught a few more. I was able to get pictures of most of them. CC A: 20"; 2.53# CC B: 18.4"; 2.33# CC C: 19"; 2.55 -- female loaded full of eggs CC D: 21.5"; 3.94#
CC 16.75"; 1.43# CC 16.5" ; 1.5# CC 20.5"; 2.71#
Have not had a chance to check on the bass. Hoping to get some time for that this week.
Back to the CC growth for your comparison,, My kid caught the first one in 10 months this weekend. 20.2” - 3.73#, Stocked at approximately 6” on 9/15/23, May or May not be eating pellets, I never see them at the feeder
I have a buddy near you (Kingman) that feeds on his LMB-BG-CC pond. The BG create a frenzy when the feed hits the water. However, if you observe to the very end of the activity, some large CC do come and hoover up some pellets when only a few BG are still feeding. Perhaps you should very quietly observe an entire pellet consumption cycle and see if some CC do come in at the end? (The CC do NOT come if you have little kids running back and forth on the dock giggling at the BG.)
The largest CC we have caught in that pond is 9.5#, but I have seen larger heads than that eating some pellets.
Up until early summer last year I observed the CC on the feed, nothing since, We never target them as they are a looked over fish in the pond, Also very lightly stocked, 10/acre My feeders are set to go over 3 times per session, 5 minutes apart for this very reason. get the BG full and out of the way then the HSB and whatever else is hungry come in. Obviously the LMB and SMB are lurking, they crush the forage and get a few pellets in the mean time
