Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - YBH culling

Noticed this school of YBH while checking the pond with the drone.

Drove down and quickly dispatched them.

I wonder if that school was a combination of several different fish spawning, that merged together?

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Very interesting concept! (I have no idea whether it is true or not?)

YBH are certainly going to grow on different small forage than BG. Therefore, in theory, you would be providing even more forage to your growing bass.

I like the concept, IF YBH are a good "starter" forage for bass, but will eventually be eliminated from the mature fishery like Fathead Minnows. (Like you said, you want to feed and catch the fish you want. You do NOT want a significant proportion of your pond carrying capacity taken up by a large mass of bullheads.)

I don't think your current bass are eating many of the 8"+ bullheads. However, the bass may be slurping down the smaller bullheads. By next year, your bass should be able to eat all but the largest YBH.

IMO, you should keep tracking your YBH population. I think your pond could provide a valuable data point regarding the "stocking YBH" concept you were told by the fish management company.

P.S. Have you ever flown your drone at dawn or dusk when you have just enough light to see into the pond. I would think you might observe bass hitting the bullhead balls. I don't know if bullheads would jump like shad, or if they scatter and go deep, or even if they just remain in a swirling ball to confuse the attacking predators. Would be a very cool video to me if you actually captured that event.

It is already pretty enlightening to see what images you have been capturing with your drone! Also, excellent job tracking your fish culling efforts. IMO you will be capable of observing the future population changes in your pond just by comparing your data over time.

However, clearly this is the time to deploy combined forces for your operations. The aerial drone needs to record the bass/forage interactions. Your boat drone needs to then sweep through the area with a net to collect samples of of the forage. Your submarine drone can capture underwater video of the interactions from a different point of view.

Thanks for the pics and videos. Agree with FishinRod on the topic.

Rod, thanks for asking the questions.

I took your advice and recorded one of the schools today.

I did not realize that YBH protect their young. I recorded it in this video. There are 2 fish protecting the swarm.
I saw a BG come in towards them and one of them chased it out. According to Google. Yellow Bullheads are known for their parental care, with both the male and female actively protecting their eggs and young fry. The parents will guard the nest, fan the eggs to aerate them, and after hatching, the male will herd the fry into schools and protect them until they are large enough to fend for themselves.

I caught this school and transplanted them in another small BOW on the property. My wife was with me and said "no don't dump them out" I dropped a couple in the third netting and when she tried to pick them up she was finned three times and it drew blood. She said, OK you can get rid of all of those. LOL

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Learnin,

That is a great video of the two armed security guards protecting the "school"!

Much more educational than merely reading about it.