Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Feeding, CC, and the 5ac Pond

Happy Memorial Day and thank you to all who served.

I’m considering taking the plunge into a Texas hunter fish feeder for our 5 acre pond with the goal of increasing carrying capacity and taking pressure off our existing forage base.

The pond is 25 feet at its deepest with LMB BG GSF CC and white crappie. We have a good BG forage base of all sizes we’ve maintained by removing every crappie and GSF, and we’ve released every bass caught regardless of size to help us keep the crappie in check. It’s a unique mix of fish we mostly inherited, so I’ve been a stickler on what we keep and what we release as to not let the crappie get out of control.

In general we have a few big crappie, lots of little bass <12” with occasional 5#, and 150 CC were stocked five years ago for my 12yo son and are getting large 4#, GSF are minimal.

There are some great posts on this forum on the feeding topic I’ve read and re-read. So I have some expectation that supplemental feeding could reasonably increase carrying capacity ~25%. And with pellet food, I’d assume the CC would largely take advantage of the feed, which *could* in turn cause them to become less predatory on the BG, leaving them for the LMB and big crappie. That’s the main question I’m trying to figure out, if in fact, by feeding, I could keep my CC from pillaging my BG and forage as they get bigger, to keep BG available as forage for my LMB and big crappie.

Take care and thanks

The time and thought you put into answering this question was impressive and truly appreciated. I spend a lot of time in excel in my day job, all you provided makes a lot of sense. this is really great to be able to speak to folks as knowledgeable as you on a topic that I really enjoy, and frankly wish I could spend more time executing the plan, ie catching and removing fish! Mostly leave that up to the 12yo.

And as you said it really comes down to what I’m comfortable with as the pond owner, taking into account all the best facts and expert opinions that I now have in front of me. There is no doubt I will be removing CCs target 10/year and replenish after a couple years. Regards the LMB vs WCP, I just mounted a LiveScope on my pontoon, and if I can continue to reduce the WCP with more precision I will take a run at reducing LMB as well along the 50/yr lines.

I just come back to questions like this.

1. If the 10" average length LMB are eating a ton of crappie, then why are they growing so slow?

2. If the LMB are growing slow, why wouldn't most all of them have low RW and be in poor condition?

3. Just how many Crappie are the LMB really eating? If the LMB are growing at less 10% of their potential ... wouldn't they eat a lot more of them ... that is ... if they were actually there?

4. Are the LMB eating only crappie? Are they eating more crappie than they are BG? Are their no BG to eat? Are the LMB getting enough of either BG or Crappie to eat given they have potential to grow 10 times faster than they are?



None of propositional rates of exploitation will have large impacts on the average weights or the populations. At 5 LMB/acre-year ... we are talking less than 3% of the estimated population. At 15 LMB/acre-year ... less than 9%. The LMB will have some recruitment, so the effect on growth will probably be less than those proportional differences (less than 10% added to average growth). 5 years of keeping up with these exploitation rates will probably not lower the standing population of LMB below 120 LMB per acre. At either of those low rates of exploitation it will take 5 years to result in the estimated increases in average weights.

For me, the biggest risk in my analysis is that your 50 year old pond won't support 300 lbs of fish but only 100 or something like that. But this isn't consistent with its age or the 12.5 LMB/hour catch rates that you reported. Actually, your catch per unit effort is consistent with a population density in excess of 250 LMB/acre (not the 174 LMB/acre that I estimated with 300 lbs standing weight). All evidence points to a significant over-population of LMB that can be exploited within the propositional exploitation I have suggested. Do I need a pond to have this level of knowledge? No, of course not. That takes a motivation to learn and an understanding of how to ask the right questions and apply knowledge.

All the feedback you have received from me has been in good faith. A very honest and heart felt attempt to give you guidance for your special circumstance. Reasonable assumptions have been made and so I am confident that you can rely on all of it. If anything, I think you will probably be disappointed in the growth of your LMB (rather than disappointed with way too many crappie). The exploitation proposed is very modest given your apparently very populous LMB. In the end, I do recommend that you do what you are most comfortable doing. Even if that involves not harvesting any LMB like you have been doing many years. You asked for help with harvest recommendations and I did that.