Pond Boss Forums Active Threads

Those are all great fish Shorty but the pleasingly plump girl ... she's remarkable.

esshup, I purchase the Cargill 4512 formula from their Louisiana plant and they ship it to me direct on a regular large freight truck TO MY HOUSE. I purchase a 1/2 pallet at a time...20 bags. These are 50 POUND BAGS. I split the order with another member here on the forum. We also split the freight charges. We have been doing this for 5 or 6 years with fantastic customer service! We also use the 1/8th and 3/16th size pellets. NEVER had a problem with them. Delivered to my door including shipping is around $37 a bag!! I use this feed for everything and ya'll know i had some pure florida LMB that weighed 5 1/4 pounds at ONLY 18 inch long!!

TGW1 - Thanks! My brother used to work in the oil patch so I called some drillers/operators and working on getting a company to plug about 50' and large cap over the entrance - we'll put a couple feet over that as well.

We should be pumping water out of the 1/4 acre left, starting today! - the excavator noticed a couple LARGE catfish in that survived the 1/4 last winter so that'll be interesting.

I truly wish this forum was more advanced to post pics and videos, the knowledge base here can not be beat. I plan to update as events warrant - mostly over at the forum that is much more user friendly (for posting a blog like story). I'll add the link to it as I don't/won't have the time or patience to redo all the pics the way this forum mandates. Not a "piss-on" Pond-Boss just factual. I truly hope they take this forum to the next level.

Dropping a couple $5,000 bills to getrdone so any advice along the way is GREATLY appreciated as this goes over the next 2-3 weeks.

Thank you and thank you.

Forum software was updated yesterday so it should be working for you,now.

Fishnrod thanks for the response sorry to say this is California and if you can find a county service there is no service here that is reasonable. I hope to save any material with good quality and I have areas of clay.but I would be interested in treating the bottom first before placing and compacting the clay

And they won't be eating very many pellets either.......

CityDad, what I was getting at was are you sure it is over populated and not just no forage. I don't remember you ever talking about catching many. How many fish would you say has been caught out of it since you got it? Do you think it was fished hard before you got it?

The big shiners like to hang out over deep water away from the bank, they aren't easy to seine.

Great post as always from jpsdad. One thing you mentioned that the OP didn't mention are his expectations of the sizes of LMB he can expect to see. If double-digits are a goal, I would say don't stock them and pick something else. If you're happy with 1-2 pounders for fast action, with an occasional 3-4 pounder, then I'd say that's reasonable and feasible.

Please do come back and post some pics! Not many trout folks on here and even less Brook Trout folks. It would be super refreshing to read up on some other folks Brook Trout efforts!!!

Welcome to the forum. Lots of info and help here

I have a similar experience but my pit has nowhere near the surface area but is much deeper.

The first thing you need to do is get a copy of the "Reclamation Plan" from the state natural resource board. Unless this pit was closed prior to about 1980, who ever dug the pit is required to file one with the state. Even if the pit was dug prior to '80, If it was operational, a retro plan was filed.

The Reclamation Plan details the remediation the mining contractor is to perform, returning the land close to original state. Almost always they are required to keep top soils on site, then when the mining is complete, return the top soil to the property where applicable.

Only when the Reclamation Plan is completed to the states satisfaction, is the contractor released from further remediation obligations.

If you purchase the property prior to completion of the Reclamation Plan, you will be responsible to complete it. Or...

I arranged for the mining company to be a zero dollar leasee until the plan was completed. Once the plan was completed to the state and MY satisfaction, he is released from the lease.

Lol she can come "try" to wear out the frisbee dog anytime..

I came to that conclusion and have all the costs for a liner. I was ready to buy a liner at a cost of over $60k installed but met with one more contractor in my area that builds ponds locally out of complete chance. (or a prayer if you ask my soon to be wife) He convinced me to try and dig out the area we think is the problem in the bottom and re-pack with some good material I found on my property. The cost for this is pretty reasonable for what is planning to do, but this outfit has mine-sized earth moving equipment at the site I visited.

We will also be cake layering polymer as we build up the area and then pull a final coat on the entire bottom surface.

My previous contractor relied on me to figure out what the problem is and how to fix it, not his expertise or help from a qualified source. I fired him and now have to deal with those consequences.

Not having enough to share IS my goal...so, I'd say you are in a good place. Trapping this year has been a third less productive than last. The spring addition of CC and the trapping efforts seem to be assisting the goal even though my waters are still muddy.

Good luck, John.

The die off was the disaster, otherwise the LMB may have kept up with them. This is going to sound odd ... but since you haven't stocked yet and you like crappie ... consider a surrogate since you are west of the continental divide. The sacramento perch may be an option. You may not even need a predator as it was the apex predator over much of its native range before the introduction of non-native centrarchid. They won't recruit well if you stock other centrarchids with them and may extirpate. They have been very difficult to establish where there are other centrarchids and most introductions have failed. But as standalone ... they may do very well. Worst case, stock other things and they will go away ... but if they recruit and grow well, you'd had a pond of crappie-like fish that are much less likely to over populate.

Steve_,

A good fish for starting than could produce forage "right now" and will produce offspring at water temps that GSH and FHM stop is Gambusia. They thrive in turbid water. There are two muddy catfish ponds I fish with my kids. One has only BH and Gams. It is has BH > 12" and its just FULL of Gams. Large females ... the size that produce > 200 fry per brood ... plus lots of smaller ones. Another pond has CC up to 5 lbs, BG, GSF, and Gams. The populations there start each year very subdued ... but here it is the middle of July and Gams are everywhere. Just amazing considering the BG/GSF overpopulation problem. Check out the link below:

https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.aspx?SpeciesID=849

You are in their native range and I guarantee that you could source them locally. Where you find them there will be lots of them but it only takes 1 pregnant female to populate a pond.

I'm glad to see somebody ask about that one because i had a spawn two weeks ago of the exact same fish. I never stocked anything that looked like it.

I will say this from the looks of spawn there is going to be a lot more of them.

I have a neighbor with a shallow 50 year old pond with lots of weeds. He has this weed cutter and uses it all summer long it does a good job but he is fighting an uphill battle trying to remove enough to keep the nutrient load down without draining and removing the muck layer. But it does keep it looking like a lake rather than a meadow

We get Whirligig beetles going sometimes in the big pond...a small crowd just going roundy roundy...with no apparent purpose. I presume they are harmless.

I haven’t posted any updates on the Satinfin shiners or spawning devices because there has been nothing to report. It seems that in my neck of the woods the Satinfin spawn until the end of June. There were a few shiners spotted at the lake the last couple of times but the spawning devices were eggless. I’m hoping the adult shiners (about 20 total) will provide a sustainable population in the future. In 2022 we will resume the adult/spawning devices in the April-May timeframe. Next on the agenda is to catch threadfin shad and 25-35 SMB this fall to put in the big pond.
In other news, the vegetation in the big pond has been great for the forage fish. The sheer numbers of different minnows around the shoreline and dock is unbelievable. We removed 63 more BG this weekend by angling/trapping/cast net. I have been managing the cattails by pulling them out by the base and getting a lot of root. One odd thing did happen last weekend. In my forage pond the water had turned muddy. We put a minnow trap in to catch crayfish that I figured were the cause. I pulled approximately 35 crayfish out in the first trap set in about 3 foot of water. Next we put 4 traps in 5-8 foot of water. When we pulled them there were just a few crayfish and everything else including the tadpoles were dead. I’m assuming that a thermocline has set up and not enough dissolved oxygen was available to keep the fish alive. Am I correct in this assumption?

Our pond which is 26 acres has some issues. We have gizzard shad and common carp and buffalo carp, we are trying to keep them in check. Due to the gizzard shad and over population of catfish our bluegill numbers are just ok with no upper size class as biggest sampled was 7” and few in the 1-3” range. LMB population is relatively low with few in the under 8” size range but good size in upper size classes by length. Relative weights could be better. Crappie are doing well and catfish are all over. The company who shocked recommends to help control carp and shad with stocking walleye or hybrid striped bass in any combination of up to 10 per acre per year and possibly stocking some tiger musky 1-2 per acre. My personal thoughts are the HSB may be more useful than walleye for controlling the shad and small carp but would like to have an opinion from more experienced pond mnagers. Also I think 2 dozen tiger Muskie would also benefit as when they get bigger they can predate on the larger shad. Both the Muskie and HSB should help control crappie as well. He also recommended possibly stocking more small LMB due to low numbers of that size but have no quantity recommendation. Anyone have any thoughts on which fish would be most benefitial and in what quantities for that size of lake. Not much structure or vegetation on this Old sandpit as it’s surrounded by houses. Advice/thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks

Thanks for the good information. It answers my questions. The ponds I am concerned with have flowing water passing through so Sonar is not applicable. I think we discussed this before. I managed the ponds for several years and treated them with generic Reward and Cutrine + in equal parts mixed 1 gallon chemical mix to 19 gallons water applied at 20 gallons per surface acre. The result was good for trout fishing ponds and usually only required one application per season. The present management is trying spot treatment with Aquathol Super K. Cost is an issue. I am still advising and was looking for a lower cost alternative.