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First and foremost, I am sure that I will be told that there is nothing to worry about and I am simply being dramatic. However, I have been bothered for the last week and am hoping for someone to tell me just that.
As some of you may know, this is my first spring with my new pond. Stocked in fall of 2022. Bluegill, FHM, and Channel Catfish (I know, I made a mistake and am working on fixing the catfish). Roughly a 1 acre pond that I am focusing on significantly larger than average (but catchable) Largemouth Bass. I plan to stock LMB this fall. I also have plans to stock more forage fish in the next several weeks to diversify my forage bass upon suggestions from here. So long story short, no current predator fish in the pond.
Up until about 2 weeks ago I fed the fish on a regular basis and saw 100s of BG coming up to eat. It was an exciting and satisfying experience. Of course my Catfish came up as well, but the vast majority of feeding was BG. They were clearly visible in both shallow and deep water.
2 weeks ago we had a cold front run in. We went from roughly 70 degree weather back into the 40s and 50s. Fish stopped eating. No big deal, I expected that with lower water temps.
Last week the temps jumped into the high 70s and low 80s. Just about perfect for spawning BG. I am excited about the prospect.
I was out of town for a period and was unable to observe daily feeding as I normally do.
Monday I come back into town and feed as usual. Completely ignored. Almost nothing comes to eat. Few days more, 70+ degree temps, no significant feeding from either BG or Catfish. First thought is that I got ravaged by waterfowl while I was gone. I am pretty close to the Quivira Refuge and see ducks, geese, and crane on my pond daily. I thought maybe they went on rampage and destroyed my fish population. Of course, I get on Pond Boss and do some searching. Only to find out that it is really only Cormorants that I need to worry about and standard waterfowl aren't an issue. I spend a few days with bird identification and feel confident that I dont have Cormorants at this point. I feel good that my BG are probably still alive and well in the pond. Maybe they are just not actively eating as they are focused on the spawn.
I got out to the pond this evening and feed as usual. I get MASSIVE feeding across the pond. The only issue? Its all Channel Catfish eating (again, I am working on removing these) there are no BG visible feeding that i can find. Unfortunately, this makes me concerned about my BG population again, so I decided to post here.
I have seen some fry in the pond this week. Not the black clouds of fish I am told I should expect during normal spawn, but a couple here and there. Enough to tell me that at least some fish are spawning as I stocked ZERO fry in 2022. I figure it is early on in the process and things will progress from there. So I use the search function on Pond Boss as well as Google to see if it is normal for BG to not come up to eat during the early spawn. Of course, nothing comes up.
Hence, I come to here. 80% of my brain is telling me that somehow all of my BG are gone and my Catfish have taken over the pond, The other 20% of my brain that is more logical is telling me that my BG are sitting on nests and that is the reason they are not coming up to eat. In a week or 2, they will be back to business as usual and I will continue to focus on removing Catfish from the pond,
I am hoping to get some insight from individuals who are more experienced than I to tell me which thought pattern is more likely. I welcome any questions and/or insight!
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