So TJ and I came up with an idea the other day that maybe some others might want to take advantage of as well....Evaluate My Fishery: Past, Present, and Future Management and Expectations....What brought this thinking along was the fact that TJ's pond is currently producing right now as we speak trophy fish of several different species...But given his pond's young age, and the advice he has gained, I wouldn't expect anything different... BUT producing big fish right now doesnt mean his pond is set up for longterm success of consistently producing trophy specimens of all those different species...I have some thoughts for him to consider, but basically we agreed this could be very interesting for the open forum and not only would others learn from his experiences, but yall could do this for your own pond as well to get some of the best fish minds in the world to offer you some suggestions and advice....

So here are a list of questions to help us analyze his fishery, and prompt some discussion of not only what he could have done better, but also some ideas for him for things he could be doing now to ensure that every year at his pond only gets him closer to his goals, whatever they may be....

If this type of format appeals to anyone else, by all means start your own thread using these questions about your existing body of water or even your conceptual pond...We should all be able to learn a little something about growing rates, etc from this data as well as offer some suggestions....

I have a feeling that collectively with all of us put together folks will benefit greatly from this type of thread...also I would love to fine tune these questions as I am just plopping down my thoughts here as I write, but know I will indeed miss some important questions that could be asked....

Also if others do indeed decide to use this format, I could use a little help from the moderators or grammar geeks making the description and instructions a bit more streamlined for better future use...

The questions can seem vague, provide as much detail as you care to write. Obviously the more detail the better the results....

Evaluate My Fishery- TJ's Pond.

When was the pond built?

How big is the pond?

How deep was it then?

How deep is it now?

Average depths?

How long did it take to fill up?

Does the water level fluctuate much?

What is the primary soil type?

What type of land is the watershed drainage into the pond?

What is the typical water clarity?

Have you ever had the water quality analyzed? Results?

What is predominant vegetation growing in and around the pond?

Do you do anything about the vegetation, explain?

Aeration?

What fish were stocked initially, what sizes, and when?

What fish have been stocked since initial stocking?

What fish have been removed since initial stocking?

Whats the biggest fish of each species caught to date and when?

Whats the average size of each species in the pond currently?

Do you feel you have all age classes of fish represented adequately in the pond? Explain...

How do you feel about the fish habitat in the pond?

Do you feel the fish have enough to eat year round?

Do you supplementally feed, what kind food, how often?

What was the best year you can remember for fishing in the pond?

Why do you think that was?

What was the worst year of fishing?

Again Why do you think that was?

What fish size/species would you like to see less of in the pond?

What fish species/size would you like to see more of or introduced in the pond?

Would you like to harvest more or less fish annually?

What are your future plans for the pond in regards to human interaction/management?

What decisions have you made that now in hindsight you would do differently?

Overall what is the ultimate goal for your fishery and how close are you to obtaining it?

Once you obtain that original goal, then what?

What else do you feel is important to know about your pond and the land that surrounds it?

There you go TJ, you have your work cut out for you, but figure out the best way to answer those questions and then I probably will have some more for you to answer...then we can get into some thoughts for consideration for keeping your pond a trophy multi species fish factory.....

I read the title, repacked my bags, grabbed the GPS, rods and tackle box and started to head out the door to Nebraska, with a stop in Illinois planned on the way back. Then I thought I'd better read the rest of the post.

It wasn't what I thought it was..............

I was ready for some hands on evaluating!

You and me both Scott! Actually, I'm standing at his gate right now wondering where everyone else is at.

Seriously, looking forward to seeing where this goes. Both for TJ's pond and going forward. Basic, but necessary questions for sure.

Evaluate My Fishery- TJ's Pond.

When was the pond built? 2008

How big is the pond? 2.5 acres

How deep was it then? 16' max

How deep is it now? 16' max

Average depths? 8'

How long did it take to fill up? 60 days

Does the water level fluctuate much? 2-3' max, supplement with 50 gph well

What is the primary soil type? clay

What type of land is the watershed drainage into the pond?
Virgin tallgrass prairie
What is the typical water clarity? 70-80" Winter, 36-48" balance of year

Have you ever had the water quality analyzed? Results? No

What is predominant vegetation growing in and around the pond? Submergent: American and either Sago, Horned or other similar pondweed. Emergent: Arrowroot I several light planktonic algae blooms annually
Do you do anything about the vegetation, explain?

5 Grass Carp keep vegetation coverage limited to 15-20% pond. I spray all Cattails once they reach 6-12" height


Aeration?

No

What fish were stocked initially, what sizes, and when?

Summer 2008
100 Adult GSH
500 FHM
50 Papershell Crayfish
400 YOY CSBG

Fall 2008
380 3-4" YP
700 4-6" RES

Spring 2009
1500 Grass Shrimp
250 GSH
10# FHM

Fall 2009
300 Pellet trained SMB
120 6-8" HSB

Spring 2010
Stock 3 14" WE

Summer 2010
HBC [blackstripe] escape from experimental pond to main pond - estimate 150 HBC stocked during Summer during several flow through events.


Fall 2011

100 4-6" WE

Summer 2012

50 4-6" HSB

What fish have been stocked since initial stocking?

See above

What fish have been removed since initial stocking?

Harvested two 23" HSB, 40 YP, Removed hundreds of CSBG

Whats the biggest fish of each species caught to date and when?

HSB - 25.5"
YP - 13.25"
HBC - 15"
BG - 9.5"
RES - 9.75"
WE - 22" advanced fish, 14" stocked fish
SMB - 17.25"

Whats the average size of each species in the pond currently?

HSB - Range from 22 - 25" with some smaller fish coming up from last year's stocking

YP 10-13" but seeing recruitment in cage and throw nets

SMB 14-17"

HBC 12-13"

BG 3-6"

RES 4-7"

WE 11-14"

Do you feel you have all age classes of fish represented in the adequately in the pond? Explain...

No, most HSB are age 4-6. Am beginning to ladder stock annually with smaller numbers.

I stock top 1% of SMB recruitment in pond annually from reproduction pond - 15-20 fish annually. Many age classes present

I have YP recruitment, but catch frequency continues to decrease

HBC are all original stocking, not catching any apparent age 2 or 3 fish

RES and BG recruitment, but fish are on small size range

How do you feel about the fish habitat in the pond?

Very little artificial habitat. Natural habitat through timber and vegetation covers 15% pond. Helps BG management with less cover

Do you feel the fish have enough to eat year round?

Predators WR is strong with steady pellet program, BG, and GSH

Do you supplementally feed, what kind food, how often?

Yes, AM 400, 500, 600 March-October 8 seconds/day

What was the best year you can remember for fishing in the pond?

2012/2013

Why do you think that was?

HBC, SMB, HSB, YP all at peak sizes

What was the worst year of fishing?

First year of stocking

Again Why do you think that was?

low population of small fish

What fish size/species would you like to see less of in the pond?

BG and small RES

What fish species/size would you like to see more of or introduced in the pond?

More large YP, more large RES

Would you like to harvest more or less fish annually?

More

What are your future plans for the pond in regards to human interaction/management?

Continue to manually remove BG and supplementally stock SMB, HSB, and YP as necessary

What decisions have you made that now in hindsight you would do differently?

No BG stocking. More deliberate forage stocking to avoid BH introduction. More careful with HBC management - prevent escape fish from main pond introduction.

Overall what is the ultimate goal for your fishery and how close are you to obtaining it?

I wanted a predator heavy pond with good sized fish and am there. I'd love to have an opportunity to frequently catch good RES, BG and YP. Starting micro fishery [.4 acre] dedicated to Male BG, RES and female YP to provide that opportunity.

Once you obtain that original goal, then what?

Keep it going - help others emulate/create their own fisheries

What else do you feel is important to know about your pond and the land that surrounds it?

Josh is at TJ s gate at 11 pm and nobody is around. Sounds like you should start evaluating the fishing and report back!

My sarcasm radar was shut off. I get it now Josh geeeeze!

TJ, different feeders throw the feed at different rates. How many pounds of feed do you throw per day?

Josh said he's getting cold waiting...

I just saw bigfoot at TJ's place. Drinking a diet Pepsi. For real.

Really did you get a picture?
That's awesome!

Nice post, very informative!!

Thanks for all the help you guys give on this site, TJ N8ly Essuh, and all others!!

TJ do you plan on adding any artificial habbitat?? Larger sized mabeye?

Texas Hunter on main pond - aqua pro feeders on the micro ponds. Feed 4 or 5 1-2 second bursts every evening over the last two hours of daylight/twilight. I'm trying to expose my BG to predation during low light feedings and also encourage my YP to feed and grow. I'm not sure I'm accomplishing either goal, but evening feedings also allow me to witness them most often, too. I could easily feed 2x more, but I don't see my fish needing it - I'm pretty happy with their WR and want them to try and utilize natural forage more anyhow.

Man, that's not a short drive for Dwight. Was the Stick popping holes in my pond and catching all my YP?

Pond unfortunately already has too much woody cover for my liking, two creek arms were underwater before they could be cleaned out thoroughly, so they are full of young flooded cedars, ash and cottonwoods. Provides plenty of opportunities for YP to lay egg strands at any rate. I want less cover so my BG population is more easily/readily utilized as forage with fewer places to hide/escape. In my particular fishery less habitat is the way to go.

I do have 80T of limestone points, piles, ridges, etc. built in several places for Crayfish/SMB, but I never fish those areas which is weird. I can catch fish until my fingers bleed sitting on my dock.

Cool Beans!! Cant wait to see your pond. Do you pull ever BG out that you catch or do you have a size limit?

I am reading some of the back logged posts about your Black stripes too. I will have questions when im done.

Good report. Those HSB numbers are strong. Is that above average growth for northern waters? What are those 25"ers weighing?

Good question Randy, I never weigh my fish, I just eyeball and take a length measurement from time to time. I would have to estimate those 25" fish are 7-8#. Obviously in the Fall their WR is higher due to having a full season of pellets, BG, and GSH to hammer...maybe they could be approaching 9-10#.

TJ, that's great. A 7-10# HSB is a hand full!!! I love those fish.

Good thread and good idea. My only comment so far is the thread should be in the Section: Managing Existing Pond; Evaluating & Adjusting Fish Populations. Located in the Questions and Observations makes it too hard to find later.

Okay - one addition should include: How are the fish sampled to 'gestimate' the average sizes or numbers(?) of each species.

My evalution is performed through observing fish during feeding times and angling sampling.

TJ you need to also use traps and or seine for survey purposes.

I do use cast nets and minnow traps baited with AM LMB pellets. 90% of my cast net catch is BG and occassionally a YOY YP or GSH. Sometimes I'll get a larger HBC or SMB with the cast nets, too. The minnow traps are BF tadpoles, BG, and Crayfish.

do you think you are going to add some more HBC?? to this or the other pond?

Ever thought about tagging? I am guessing thats not your style.

Ever ate the HBC or stomach pumped them just to see what they where full of?

And how about the muskrat problem? haha!

Speaking of 'rats, I set 2 conibear 110's in my pond last night and one had a 'rat this a.m.

I think they tunneled into the island and are digging into the pond banks to feed. (digging up rooted plants)

The plan is to let the pond drop for the rest of the winter, and hopefully it'll flood or at least hit full pool this Spring. If that happens, it should flood them out of their dens.

I wont be adding HBC until I can verify their fecundity, or lack thereof.

Tagging would be cool...that's been on my list of considerations.

Yes we've harvested a dozen so far, mainly invertabrates [I think, black mush] and the minnows they were able to steal off our slip bobber rigs.

I keep cattails sprayed so muskrats haven't been too much of an issue, at least I don't think. I never see any swimming, but do see some holes from time to time.

The reason you are catching less YP is that we are transferring them to Bremerpond. Check the device we planted in that 16 foot spot and you will see how it is done.

We don't want anyone to know about our lunker YP so we are always wondering where they are.

TJ:

When humans are around, 'rats go nocturnal. They're there. If you go to the windward side of the pond, do you see pieces of freshly dug up or cut off pieces of plants or pondweeds?

TJ - that black mush in crappie stomachs is usually mostly comprised of zooplankton. You should enjoy my crappie article in Mar-Apr 2013 PBoss.

No, not often. I have been told if I had any kind of population I'd see them swimming the shorelines at twilight? Anyhow, I've had three trappers out and they all were like, meh - not worth my time, you have no population here. My point is...I want ZERO population!

Thanks Bill, I figured they were invertabrates of some kind...that explains stomach contents of a lot of fish I've cleaned...zooplankton.

Also, loved the SMB article with Dave. Good stuff there, I learned some new things.

TJ,
great snapshot. your on a great path! Glad to see you stocking advanced size smallies every year, that is truly a big key to growing trophy fish of pretty much any species...even though the yellow perch are reproducing, just view those little guys as forage, the ones born in your pond wont ever amount to anything, I would stock advanced size perch annually as well....

So from my point of view, seeing how you love both ice fishing and perch so much I definitely would wage war on the bluegill and redears in the 4-7" range....since you dont have largemouth bass those are completely worthless fish for you, you have your work cut out for you.

get creative and get em out every chance possible....I would fasten some structure to the underside of your floating dock so as to not get in the way of swimmers, but to help congregate the little bastards where they are easily accessible to you and your kids and your kids friends with ice fishing jigs (during the summer time) and would make contests on catching and removing the most of them....you would be surprised at how big of a dent you can put in them when you target them specifically...I have moved 1000's and 1000's of unwanted fish from my 3 acre pond doing that...(a 3 acre pond which I unfortunately no longer own, man I miss that pond...)

So anyhow I know you dont like much structure, but I would make one very cool reef out in the middle in the 16' water for just a rock solid place to ice fish and also give your fish a nice home feel or better yet give em disneyland out in the desert or six flags to visit (not county fair feel though)...People like a little scenery and so do fish....happy fish are much happier than bored fish.... hey if debris like structure is not your thing, than you should consider adding current to your pond...moving water horizontally or vertically makes fish happier than anything...current is the most underutilized fish making happy tool on the planet...get creative, but watch your pond come alive when you figure out how to make a river in your pond or simply how to move some water in there....

So there is my advice for you, you are already way beyond cutting edge with what your doing with that pond, my hat is off to you and like many others, I look forward to catching a fish off your dock this summer! Although when I come, im gonna train your smallies to eat out of my hand by the end of just one day....the 4-7" bluegill they will eat, but mainly only when they are injured...also smallies are super curious fish when your underwater they are not generally scared of you....by staying a few feet underwater I will get em to eat and then after a few days of that you can just lean over your dock and they are ready to gorge on your live offering.....

Nate - I bought 200 3-4" YP, caged and grew them out to 6-7" this Fall and released. Weird thing though, I only ended up with 75 fish in October. No holes in cage, no way for any predators to get them...but I did release probably 25 emaciated fish with pinch bellies that apparently never got trained. Still, half my fish are unaccounted for. At any rate, great advice, and I'm going to continue to release 100-200 advanced YP every Fall as they are my favorite fish to harvest.

Few items for anyone's feedback:

I am going to employ a fyke net to help remove BG this Summer. I read a nice post from someone on the forum - sounds like a good size is only around $300. It sure beats throwing a cast net for 10-15 BG per net. Gets tiring and the BG get skiddish fast - they learn pretty fast when they see me throw a time or two to get under cover. What do you think about the fyke net for BG management?

I want my RES to grow! I never see any snails anywhere - I realize they will utilize other forage like my grass shrimp, but I'm concerned they are not growing fast. What can I do to help my RES grow? Just remove them along with BG to relieve some pressure on their preferred forage niches?

I've considered stocking some MALE LMB to help control BG...with Males topping at 2.5-3# their gape should be perfect for 5-6" BG and RES....what do you think? How many/acre? I was thinking of starting with 10-15 fish and going from there. Yes, of course I will be 100% certain the fish is milting prior to trying to id sex.

I want hand trained SMB, we don't have your water clarity, but it's not too far behind at about 3-4' between blooms. Come and show me how it's done.

What do you think of adding Chain Pickerel to the mix to help manage BG? I fear they would hammer my YP as well, which I'm trying to protect - and I have zero experience with Chain pickerel or their ability to spawn in a pond - which I do NOT want. Would they help manage the BG? At what cost?

What do you think of the ladder stocking of HSB [25-50] annually to replace my aging population?

How about my ladder stocking of WE? The small WE I've caught are pretty skinny - I worry about lack of forage to sustain a much larger population.

Lastly - what about my forage base...should I consider adding a minnow species that might establish a sustainable population to help take pressure off the GSH? What minnow would I choose - bluntnose? Would you recommend using blocking nets and allowing them to exist for 6-8 months [and reproduce several times] prior to releasing?

Thanks in advance - see you this Spring - it's Zipline time!

TJ, refresh n8ly's picture of your bottom contour for where you want to use the Fyke net.

I'd like to hear what people say about the RES too..

2:1 slopes - but Nate and his crew have swam there so they should know it gets pretty deep fast. Are those depths not consistent with fyke net performance?

I'm interested in seeing n8ly's response since I don't have much experience running a shock boat.

I have all the mgmnt tools at my disposal, fykes, seines, traps, and shock boat....but for your situation TJ, I would suggest keeping your money in your family....your boy is old enough for a summer job and at $.10 per bg removed that would be the most productive $300 you could spend in a summer....

I would strongly discourage lmb for a smallie pond, go another route....
For the walleyes you would greatly benefit from stocking bigger fish each year as opposed to the little ones.....just think if U stocked 5-10 of those 14" + walleye every year...look at how fast they would thrive, and how happy you would be....

Def stay away from pickeral, bad idea...

Let me think of a way to get redear sunfish to grow today, u just focus on removing tons of em and surely we will come up with some options on growing em from there...

<------ loves this thread.

I am interested in seeing if the HSB, WE, and SMB in TJ's pond can keep the BG population under control as time goes by.

As for my experience with RES, I only catch a few each year. I've stocked them a number of times, and I see really big ones spawning every season. For some reason they don't seem to have any significant population, and I don't know why. But, yet when I do catch one, it is "whoa, strap on the safety belt.". We almost always throw them back, so we sure aren't over fishing them.

Here is one that I took out last year that had fin rot. RES

As I look out at the blowing snow, and the thermometer is showing 16 degrees, maybe I'm on the northern boundary of where they will thrive.

Cat, do you think your CC and LMB probably keep their population managed to the point where there's plenty of invertabrates and crustaceans for them to mow on and perform very well? I've been so focused on establishing a RES population I've never moved a single fish with exception of stocking my BRES pond and Condello has moved several smaller fish for his dubious experiments.

3°F here this morning and RES survive in my pond and the local lakes. I've experienced temps in the -20's and almost 3' of ice on the local lakes in previous years and the RES have survived. Now, that may be due to some underwater natural groundwater springs in the lake bottom, giving them a slightly warmer water refuge, but knowing what I do about groundwater DO, I don't know if the O2 levels would be high enough in the warmer water for them.

I unfortunately don't have any real answers to my RES issues. The BG seem to do fine, and I feel I have more than one state record residing in my pond -- which I would never publicly advertise if I catch it. The CC out-do themselves -- but that is a whole different issue. My LMB have extremely low relative weights, and we catch them like most people catch stunted bluegill or greensunfish in other ponds.

But, I am really intrigued by the rest of this thread, and what Nate and TJ have posted. I don't want to hijack it.

I would really like to see the discussion between Nate and TJ continued, along with ideas from others about this. I have a 20 year old pond, a one year old pond, and I plan to put in one more pond this spring.

Would it be worth renewing a pond (killing it, and starting over) every so often as a pond ages? It is something I'm certainly thinking about.

It seems like this would be perfect for an article in Pond Boss if collaborated by several.

Ken, I would also give consideration to that idea on my one pond that has the problematic dam. I've considered trying to really develop it just accepting it at the level where it is currently, but would almost prefer to just start completely over with it before doing anything.

TJ, outstanding results, brother. I found your answers to Nate's questions to be really interesting and enlightening in showing me how little I actually do for my ponds three years into ownership.

TJ,
With how your pond is setup with smallies and yellow perch, I would steer clear of trying to grow big redear sunfish in the pond. I been thinking how to grow bigger ones in your pond, but really I wouldn't want their preferred food to be plentiful... Yellow perch and smallmouth both seem to be pretty wormy fish prone to parasites..... keeping the snails cleaned up will only help cut down on parasites.. Basically what I'm saying is you don't want to create ideal redear habitat and food...

So you are gonna have to grow big redears somewhere else and move them into your main pond...also prob don't cull the small redears, but rather just have the boy focus on removing the bluegills....

Can you get more big walleye like you got the three 14 inchers?

Yes, but it's not easy in NE, at all. I could cage a some smaller WE and feed them a steady diet of BG...it's a thought.

ok, so if sourcing bigger fish isnt an option, then maybe along the same lines of what your thinking....maybe consider stocking the small ones 5" which should be available and raising them in the pond like your doing, but when you catch them in the 11-13 inch range put them in the cage and feed them a steady diet of minnows and bluegills to beef em up for a few months and then let em go.... I think if you can get em over the hump and into the next size class of forage availabity that they will flourish just like the ones you put in advanced sized...

plus believe it or not, once you get them trained in the cage to eat your injured bluegill offerings, then you will be able to keep them on your injured bluegill offerings right off your dock!! I cant get the walleye to eat directly out of my hand, but I can get them to eat injured bluegill I toss out in the water!!

Same with crappie, they too will eat pretty big bluegill injured from the dock....the only problem I can see though that will hamper your training your fish to eat is that the dock is also your favorite place to fish....

At my place the dock that we train the fish to eat from our hands we dont allow any fishing...the fish have picked up on that for sure and the biggest fish in the whole lake live at that dock and are very happy to see people coming out onto it!

I can always tell though when someone has been fishing (poaching) from that dock because it takes the fish a couple days to become friendly/brave again right out in the open...

so basically what Im saying is when we come to Nebraska this spring we are gonna need to build ya another dock....

With what little experience I had with walleye in cages, it does not work very well. The individuals in the cage kept trying to eat the similar sized siblings. IMO this is why. Walleye are primarily fish eaters (piscivors and similar to those in the pike family and quite canibalistic) while other fish including basses are more omnivorous not so canibalisic and will readily live together in cages and learn to eat introduced foods. I hope I am wrong in this so someone can be successful at growing WE in cages to teach me how to do it. :-)))). Your best method would be to keep the cage full or crowded with small edible fish. Two hurdles with this method are: A. the mesh would have to be small enough to contain small feeder fish and small mesh cages tend to clog fast with filamentous algae. B. manually cleaning cages is stressful on the contained fish and walleye are water quality sensitive. Big losses are likely to occur.

IF you want larger sized WE stockers I suggest you stock them a 2"-3" fingerlings, grow them in a small drainable pond that is full of feeder fish such as minnows, shiners, YOY perch, and/or baby bluegills. Use method similar to that described by Mark Cornwell in the Jan-Feb 2013 PBoss magazine article "Walleye Stocking Guidelines". Then when they are 10"-14" long move them to the main pond. Large sized YOY WE really nice 7"-11" fish have been available for me grown from somewhere in SD - probably in winter kill prarie ponds. It may be an option for n8ly to get some on the truck's way to Ohio in the fall. Dr Dave may know of the source. I can probably find out the name of the source if needed.

IMO if you want large RES in the main pond, do what we do to get other large panfish stockers- grow them in cages then move pellet trained adults into the main pond. This way the adult, actively growing redears are not depending on mollusks for food. Redears, as you all know, are notorious for being hard to pellet train so be prepared for that challenge. Get that perfected and teach us how to do it successfully - :-)))))

Good thoughts guys...I've seen many struggle with RES pellet training and lost majority of fish. Not sure being absentee I can really spend the time/effort necessary to get them from bloodworms to pellets successfully. So, my RES are on their own, unfortunately - unless I got brazen enough to try stocking some kind of mussel/clam/other bivalve species or additional snail species....Bill what's your take on either of these routes? Trapdoor Snail?

Nate I'm committed to continuing growing out YP and stocking in the Fall. I need to figure out the cannibalism going on by more frequently netting the fish and examining their condition however, and release all the runts/skinny fish to give them a better chance in the main pond. Hopefully results will improve this year over last year.

On the WE - we're seeing 5-6" at 11-14" now in 15 mos. Not sure if that growth is acceptable or not...they are skinny fish for sure, although not pinch bellied, and I know forage availability is probably low for their current gape.

I would be real cautious about trapdoor snails. They get too big probably quickly for RES predation and have thick shells. Any way you can at home pellet train some RES in the Condello Poor-Boy RAS?

No room for RAS, sadly. RES are on their own, I guess.

TJ,

I had a similar problem in my smallmouth pond. As you know I also have hybrid stripers. The bluegill, however, were getting out of control. I really didn't mind it except that my family and I like to swim in the pond. We all got sick of bluegill continously biting us while we were swimming.

To solve the bluegill problem, I shut my feeders down for nearly 2 months this past summer. My smallies and wipers had to step up to the plate and earn their keep, which they did. Cutting them off from the tasty aquamax morsels meant that they had to eat bluegill or starve to death. Tough love but it worked. My predators adpated, improvised and overcame (thanks Mr. Eastwood). They put the hammer down on the bluegill, we commenced swimming in peace, and the predators were rightfully rewarded with loads of Aquamax this fall.

Obviously densities of predators is an important consideration when determining how long to shut the feeders down. A couple times per week I would cruise the shorelines and monitor progress. I watched the bluegill numbers dwindle until I felt the objective was met. Everyone (fish included) benefitted from this management decision.

It is good to know that pellet feeding smallmouth bass and hybrid striped bass will switch to readily eating small fish when pellet feeding stops. Shawn - can you provide some idea of how big the SMB and HSB were and the size range of abundant small bluegill that they reduced their numbers?. Very many weed beds in your smallmouth pond?

Very cool experiment and observation. I wonder how long before they realized their welfare food wasn't coming and they had to work for it.

Obviously faster than some humans do!


(Okay, okay, I won't do that again!)

Good post Shawn. I have a very predator heavy fishery as you know and I have no doubt they would hammer the BG hard if I shut down the feeder for a while. I wonder what kind of impact it would have on SMB, HSB, YP WR? Did you notice any weight loss, body condition changes?

Remind us again why you stocked BG into your SMB/HSB pond?

My predators were in great condition prior to and after this little experiment. My smallies range from 3/4lb to 2 lbs+ at this time. My wipers are from 1.5 to 5 lbs. My initial class of bluegill and redear (class of 2010) are doing great with some fish pushing 9 inches. The last two years of spawn were the biters. I have no weeds whatsoever except for a small patch of cattails that I manage, but I have plenty of hard cover (hone hole trees and shrups, rock piles, gravel beds, couple of porcupine attractors, cubes made from pallets, and log configurations/cribs.

The bluegill numbers were getting out of control. I could go to my dock and scratch off periphyton from the floats and just like Pavlov's dogs, I would schools of little bluegills converge on my location. When walking around the pond's edge, I could see them everywhere. When the feeders went off, it became very evident that I had too many. I got great joy, however, from watching a few smallies that always preferred to pick bluegill off than eat pellets. The pellets left the little bluegill vulnerable- they couldn't but to go for the pellets- but the smallies would hammer them. However, there were literally only a few smallies that used this technique. Most of the smallies preferred the Aquamax Welfare Program. When I cut them off, they did switch to working for a living and started hammering the bluegills, as did the hybrid stripers.

When the mass genocide of small bluegills was ended, it took over a week to get a frenzy of feeding with the Aquamax again. The larger bluegill and the smaller smallies never missed a beat, however.

Speaking of the smallies, I have two distinct size classes from the original stocking of 4" fish from 2010. Some are living like rock-stars and have crazy growth rates, while others are healthy but mediocre. I thought maybe this was a gender thing, but we whacked 10 of them early last summer, and they were just as likely to be males as females. I also pulled otoliths to confirm they were the same age and they were.

I've had reproduction of the smallies but they don't recruit to the fishery. The reproduction is very limited and they don't make it past 2.5-3 inches. This has happened for the past two years. Perhaps some of them could have snuck through this past year had I not shut the feeders off, but most small things got eaten when I shut down the Aquamax.


TJ, I resepctfully decline to answer your question as to why I stocked bluegill- lol. In hind-sight, I would have done some things differently.

Off to Tennessee in 3 minutes for the Southern Division AFS meeting. I will hook up with Lusk, Grimes, Cruz, Robinson, Bales, Lewis, Beasley, and Goldsby on Thursday afternoon. Should be a good time. Catch you later.

Awesome post Shawn, this is invaluable information for anyone with BG management issues. Also fascinated with your 2 classes of SMB...trying to figure out here the potential reasons for that.

I think you could afford to stock a few WE and see how well they do on your BG - my adults have figured something out and provide a great bonus catch.

Do you stock YP in this pond? If not, wondering your reasons.

Do your BG serve as primary forage? No GSH in that pond?

If you need some advanced SMB let me know - will be trying the new SMB reproduction pond this year and anticipate much better collection numbers.

Wish I were a part of that group in TN...have a blast and get some new big money clients!