We need to restock a tank in Hays County that went dry this summer. Tank is about 300-350 yards long, 40 yards wide and is 8-10 feet deep. It is a tributary of Onion Creek that has an earthen dam at one end. Had never been dry under our ownership of 30 years. Lots of cover, willow trees down in water, limestone shelves etc... Where do we start with restocking? It is full and overflowing, can't tell if we had many fish wash down in recent rains but doubt it. Had 2-3lb LMB and lots of perch in the tank before, lots of minnows-not sure what kind. Any suggestions?
Welcome to the fourm first off...
It is hard to give good advice without first knowing what you are looking for from the tank... Do you want a typical bass/perch fishery? Something a little different? Fish to eat, trophy fish of one kind or another, lots of smaller but easier to catch fish? Etc..
Recreational fishing mostly. We typically catch and release and rarely kill a fish. We do have some poachers but are not sure what they catch and keep! We fish this tank on weekends only just a couple of us fishing, father and son mostly. Catching the trophy fish is a priority!
Also, our only trophy fish were large mouth bass. Have read about tiger bass and it sounds like they are fun to catch. Would that work along with LMB?
You're in good company here! Lot of folks dealing with smaller impoundments in central Texas.
I'd say you are best off reading as much as possible on the subject. This PDF has some good information. It's targeted to East Texas, and some of the stuff on liming probably won't apply to you, but it's a good introduction to managing a warm-climate pond for Largemouth Bass.
http://www.aces.edu/dept/fisheries/education/documents/Trophy_Bass_Production.pdf Also, Tiger Bass are just a particular strain of Largemouth Bass: a cross between Florida Largemouth and Northern Largemouth. They're often recommended for ponds of the type you seem to want.
Would you have an opportunity to throw a worm under a bobber into the pond soon, to see if anything washed in? That'd be highly advised, you need to know if you're dealing with an overpopulation of undesirable fish such as bullheads.
The forum can give you much better advice if you can clarify your goals. What types of fish do you like to catch? Do you want big fish, or lots of fish? Will you be feeding or aerating the pond? What is the average surface area of the pond (Google Earth is helpful here)?
Looks like I have some homework to do. Will get accurate acreage, test the waters and read up before I take the next step. We like to catch big fish! The pond is spring fed as long as we don't have severe droughts. When the water table drops too low the springs dry up. So we do get fresh water coming in that way and from upstream in heavy rains. We had very active good size largemouth bass before the severe drought this year and had never(in 30 years)stocked the property.
Hello MWSCOTT, and welcome to Pond Boss. If your pond doesn't have any fish in it then you have a blank slate to work with. So many possibilities. Large Mouth Bass, Hybrid Striped Bass, Small Mouth Bass (not all mixed together mind you), Coppernosed Bluegill, regular nosed bluegill, red eared sunfish, green sunfish, the possibilities are numerous.
OK-there are absolutely no fish in the tank, really did not even see minnows. Lots of frogs ! The surface area is about 20 acres with a maximum 10 foot depth. The tank has a limestons bttom for about half of it and lots of limestone shelves on one side. Mud and grass throughout the rest. A regional supplier will have a truck coming through our area the third week of December so I wanted to try to figure out what to put in. This supplier has FHM, HCB, HBG, CCF, BC, REB and CNB. I have read that I should wait until spring to add the bass giving the forage fish. I have also heard that Tilapia are good to add in the spring. Any feedback?
How prone is the tank to drying up and losing massive amounts of surface acreage?
OK-there are absolutely no fish in the tank, really did not even see minnows. Lots of frogs ! The surface area is about 20 acres with a maximum 10 foot depth. The tank has a limestons bttom for about half of it and lots of limestone shelves on one side. Mud and grass throughout the rest. A regional supplier will have a truck coming through our area the third week of December so I wanted to try to figure out what to put in. This supplier has FHM, HCB, HBG, CCF, BC, REB and CNB. I have read that I should wait until spring to add the bass giving the forage fish. I have also heard that Tilapia are good to add in the spring. Any feedback?
Are you sure your pond is 20 acres? The measurements you gave above indicate that it's about 2.8 acres.
What are HCB and REB?
It dried up this summer in the prolonged drought. Prior to that it has never lost a significant amount of surface acreage. It has dropped in depth a few feet but that is all.
It is 400-450 yards long and 30 acres wide. so you are right it is 2.5 acres!
REB are Redear Bream and I think I was referring to Coppernose Bluegill with the letter HCB.
Pardon my ignorance, but is "tank" a regional name for "pond"?
Nope, pond is a regional name for a tank ....
This is a dammed up creek, the creek ran against the side of a limestone cliff so when the dam was built a tank/pond was created. We (Central Texas) generally refer to these as tank.
Just make sure that the "regional fish supplier" doesn't offer free fish. (well, with the exception of Rainman!
)
Who's the supplier if I may ask?
Since you are down South, you can stock the forage fish first, then stock the LMB later. I'd definately go with Coppernose (CNBG) for a forage base, along with some FHM. The GSH would be a good forage fish for LMB as well, but they might reduce some of your CNBG recruitment. Depending on how large the fish are that you will be stocking, it might be a couple years before they get really big. Do you just like to fish strictly for LMB or are their other fish species that you like to catch as well?
Pardon my ignorance, but is "tank" a regional name for "pond"?
I've always heard the word "tank" used in Texas to refer to a man made pond.
Just make sure that the "regional fish supplier" doesn't offer free fish. (well, with the exception of Rainman!
)
Who's the supplier if I may ask?
Since you are down South, you can stock the forage fish first, then stock the LMB later. I'd definately go with Coppernose (CNBG) for a forage base, along with some FHM. The GSH would be a good forage fish for LMB as well, but they might reduce some of your CNBG recruitment. Depending on how large the fish are that you will be stocking, it might be a couple years before they get really big. Do you just like to fish strictly for LMB or are their other fish species that you like to catch as well?
This sounds like a good start. You could probably go ahead and stock FHM at 10 lb. per acre now. FHM are the initial step of pretty much any pond program.
We like catching perch as well and we had catfish before also. We did not have Bluegill but I think they sound like a good fit as well. The supplier I found that delivers to the area(not to our tank directly)is called Dunn's and they are located in Oklahoma. I don't think they stock GSH but what I have read about GSH makes them sound perfect for our tank. There are several suppliers in Texas but the delivery seemed expensive. This outfit meets you at a central location and loads the fingerlings in plastic bags that they oxygenate. We are about 40 minutes from the pick up site which would give us plenty of time to get our fish in the water.
Any other suggestions on suppliers?
Here's a "textbook" baitfish stocking plan for your 2.5 acre pond:
ASAP
2000 small coppernose bluegill
500 small redear sunfish
25lbs fathead minnows
June 2010
125 largemouth bass fingerlings
plus some other predators if you are interested, such as catfish or hybrid stripers
Start stocking tilapia in spring 2011.
We would love the opportunity to price these fish to you, delivered or picked up.
Actually called a stock tank. Stock meaning cows. Shortened to tank.
This is a dammed up creek, the creek ran against the side of a limestone cliff so when the dam was built a tank/pond was created. We (Central Texas) generally refer to these as tank.
Does this creek still run into the pond? You say the pond was never stocked, so where did these fish come from? Also, if there were no BG or other forage fish, what were your LMB eating?
Overtons has some great looking CNBG, and I believe they have various sizes of fish, not just fingerlings like Dunn's advertises.
We like catching perch as well and we had catfish before also. We did not have Bluegill but I think they sound like a good fit as well.
I'm guessing that your perch looked a lot like this:
You almost certainly had bluegill, you just know them as "perch," which is a common regional term for any of the smaller sunfish.
Actually, some of us still call them perch when we're not on this site.
Pond perch=(hold on to your drawers Yolkie and Rainman),green sunfish.
We have different regional names in Ohio.
Perch:
Tank:
I ain'ta gonna say it. Nosiree, not me.
Theo, this one's for you!
Here in VA...
Perch:
Tank:
A tank is a perch, but a perch is not necessarily a tank.
Don't be ridiculous.
Perch or throne: Tank:
Dave,hold me back here,Im fixin to get in the toilet on this one.
The tank was never stocked but there were lots of minnows and perch and a healthy aquatic environment. It is a dammed up creek and when it rains over a certain amount the tanks upstream flood, and this large tank floods into the lower creek and tank, we assume fish from upstream would wash down.
That is definitely one of our "perch"!
We have our fish in the water now, put them in about 3 weeks ago(CNBG, REDEAR AND FHM) but we have not seen a single one since they were introduced to the water. Is this normal? We have had some cold weather but were out on a warm day last weekend and canoed very quietly over the entire area and did not see a thing!
We have our fish in the water now, put them in about 3 weeks ago(CNBG, REDEAR AND FHM) but we have not seen a single one since they were introduced to the water. Is this normal? We have had some cold weather but were out on a warm day last weekend and canoed very quietly over the entire area and did not see a thing!
How many did you put in? With the cooler weather, they might just all be deep enough for you not to see them. You could try throwing some breadcrumbs or something similar to see if any show up for it.