Pond Boss
Posted By: hawkeye05 Finally stocking today - 06/03/21 04:42 PM
I'm a new member and have been reading this sight non stop for 6 months. Am stocking our newest pond today with YP, CC, HB, FHM and then Walleye and Redear this fall. Pretty excited..
Posted By: Pat Williamson Re: Finally stocking today - 06/03/21 05:04 PM
Welcome
Are you going to feed! I think normally fhm go in first to establish a food chain for predators such as cc and I think YP as well. If fhm are put in at same time they probably won’t get off much spawning
Posted By: Sunil Re: Finally stocking today - 06/03/21 05:47 PM
Take pictures!!!
Posted By: teehjaeh57 Re: Finally stocking today - 06/03/21 09:51 PM
Congrats - question, HB?
Posted By: Steve_ Re: Finally stocking today - 06/04/21 01:11 AM
Originally Posted by teehjaeh57
Congrats - question, HB?

I was thinking myself. Hybrid Bluegill maybe?

Originally Posted by Pat Williamson
Welcome
Are you going to feed! I think normally fhm go in first to establish a food chain for predators such as cc and I think YP as well. If fhm are put in at same time they probably won’t get off much spawning

I agree with that, should definitely give the FHM some time to populate your pond before stocking anything else.
Posted By: hawkeye05 Re: Finally stocking today - 06/04/21 01:57 PM
Sorry, yes Hybrid Bluegill. Pond is full of millions of tadpoles of all sizes so should be a decent food base to start along with the minnows spawning all summer in all the structure etc we have- so was not planning on feeding at this point. Will try to monitor the situation, thanks for the replies.
Posted By: canyoncreek Re: Finally stocking today - 06/04/21 03:56 PM
Hawkeye,
Others may disagree with me but I'm not the only one on the forum who has found that the tadpoles will not be a food source for your fish. I guess see what your observations are. I would work on other forage base food options and I agree with you, the ones where you pay a little to get the food chain started and the adults (crayfish, minnows, scuds, whatever) make thousands of their own future generations is the most economical plan. It pays a little up front to create the conditios, the refuge places, the structures that support the spawning and survival of those little forage critters.

CC
Posted By: Pat Williamson Re: Finally stocking today - 06/04/21 04:10 PM
Originally Posted by canyoncreek
Hawkeye,
Others may disagree with me but I'm not the only one on the forum who has found that the tadpoles will not be a food source for your fish. I guess see what your observations are. I would work on other forage base food options and I agree with you, the ones where you pay a little to get the food chain started and the adults (crayfish, minnows, scuds, whatever) make thousands of their own future generations is the most economical plan. It pays a little up front to create the conditios, the refuge places, the structures that support the spawning and survival of those little forage critters.

CC

Canyon I have found that fish don’t seem to bother tadpoles but will scarf up a frog..... my observation only...
Posted By: Quarter Acre Re: Finally stocking today - 06/04/21 04:12 PM
I've not found tadpoles to be of any significant food source (as tadpoles). My pond gets overrun by them, but once they turn to frogs...99.99% of them disappear. The frogs may be getting eaten at that point and/or they move on. IDK. I have caught LMB while trolling with bullfrog tadpoles, so I know they will eat them, but my buddy who was fishing with minnows and worms out fished me 10 to 1. I have sooooo many, I remove all the tadpoles that I can, right or wrong.
Posted By: Heppy Re: Finally stocking today - 06/04/21 06:17 PM
My experience with both bullfrog and toad tadpoles is that none of the fish I stocked touched them until I introduced BCP last fall. Both species of tadpole were abundant until this spring. Now I rarely see toad tadpoles in the pond with BCP but see them in every other puddle that contains water. The bullfrog tadpoles are as abundant as ever.
Posted By: gehajake Re: Finally stocking today - 06/04/21 06:22 PM
There is a good bit of difference in tadpoles no? I understand the little black ones are toad tadpoles which fish wont eat at all, but a bullfrog tadpole I would have guessed they would eat, maybe they have some kind of deterrent too till they get a little further along, natures way of letting them get a start, with out that they would have no defense mechanism to keep them from pretty much 100% eliminated in a short time in any average pond.
Posted By: hawkeye05 Re: Finally stocking today - 06/04/21 06:35 PM
Interesting on the tadpoles not being fodder! I'll follow up on what I see in the next week or so. Thanks.
Posted By: esshup Re: Finally stocking today - 06/05/21 04:37 AM
I would say that the tadpoles won't be year 'round fodder for the fish, but at least in my pond the fish (bass and bluegills) absolutely hammer the toad tadpoles. Not many seem to survive. Some years I will have a 2' wide belt of black around the pond edge, but after a bit the fish find them and the belt narrows down to just a few pockets that find shallow water to escape predation in.

I have a customer that has 2 ponds within 40 yds of each other. One is a forage pond, only FHM, papershells and some PSK in there, and it is loaded with bullfrog tadpoles. The pond which has SMB in it has 0 tadpoles that I can see.
Posted By: Heppy Re: Finally stocking today - 06/06/21 04:39 AM
On a positive note the thousands of bullfrog tadpoles in my pond are controlling the algae. I’m seeing almost no algae even around the TH Feeder and more bullfrog tadpoles than I have seen in the past two years. Tilapia aren’t legal in VA so I’m thinking of holding off on SMB because of esshups comment and substituting with WE this fall. esshup, have you seen any ponds with BCP and WE that have bullfrog tadpoles? I have other fish as well but the BCP are still too small to have any impact on them which is why I asked the question. Thanks!
Posted By: esshup Re: Finally stocking today - 06/06/21 10:57 PM
Originally Posted by Heppy
On a positive note the thousands of bullfrog tadpoles in my pond are controlling the algae. I’m seeing almost no algae even around the TH Feeder and more bullfrog tadpoles than I have seen in the past two years. Tilapia aren’t legal in VA so I’m thinking of holding off on SMB because of esshups comment and substituting with WE this fall. esshup, have you seen any ponds with BCP and WE that have bullfrog tadpoles? I have other fish as well but the BCP are still too small to have any impact on them which is why I asked the question. Thanks!

Nope, I know of no ponds with BCP. One has Hybrid Crappie, but no WE. No great population of frogs in that one either.
Posted By: hawkeye05 Re: Finally stocking today - 06/15/21 03:53 PM
follow up, 10 days after stocking fish. Tadpoles are gone and there are now millions of tiny little toads around the bank of the pond. Still some bigger tadpoles in the water which I assume are bullfrog tadpoles.
Seeing a few dead fatheads around the edges of the pond and others stuggling and dying, hopefully this is common and not very many compared to how many went into the pond. Saw several Hybrid bluegill and YP in the shallows eating bugs last night as well. Threw in some grasshoppers for entertaiment value! I am really enjoying this new pond.
Posted By: Quarter Acre Re: Finally stocking today - 06/15/21 05:01 PM
Glad to hear an update! It's not uncommon to have some floaters after stocking, especially minnows. Enjoy the new life in the waters! I do enjoy tossing in some grasshoppers when they are abundant. I even dreamt up a net system for the mower to try and collect the buggars when they get real thick, but never put it together.
Posted By: jpsdad Re: Finally stocking today - 06/17/21 02:41 PM
Originally Posted by Quarter Acre
Glad to hear an update! It's not uncommon to have some floaters after stocking, especially minnows. Enjoy the new life in the waters! I do enjoy tossing in some grasshoppers when they are abundant. I even dreamt up a net system for the mower to try and collect the buggars when they get real thick, but never put it together.



QA, My grandpa was a wheat farmer in northern OK. One of his fields had a drainage running through where he let the switchgrass and sunflower grow tall. I have fond memories of when he would take minnow seine and attach to the front of his 68 Ford PU so it stretched across his grill. He would drive through the tall grass and differential grasshoppers would get caught in the net. By the time we reached the pond we were ready to fish smile
Posted By: Quarter Acre Re: Finally stocking today - 06/17/21 03:20 PM
Originally Posted by jpsdad
...take minnow seine and attach to the front of his 68 Ford PU so it stretched across his grill. He would drive through the tall grass and differential grasshoppers would get caught in the net. By the time we reached the pond we were ready to fish smile

Now That's what I'm talking about!
Posted By: hawkeye05 Re: Finally stocking today - 06/30/21 05:46 PM
My HBG are spawning already? Is this possible? They were stocked on 6/3/21 and were 2"-4" and last night I saw that the bigger ones have nests already and are protecting them from marauding little perch. I didn't realize this would take place for fish this young/small, but I'm pleased. I'm not sure if anything will actually hatch but cool to watch anyway.
Posted By: Sunil Re: Finally stocking today - 06/30/21 06:27 PM
It is possible.

When waters are 'new,' fish instinctually have a need to fill it with other fish.
Posted By: anthropic Re: Finally stocking today - 07/01/21 06:16 AM
I've seen stories of 3 - 4 inch BG spawning when there are no larger BG to take prime bedding territory.
Posted By: Dave Davidson1 Re: Finally stocking today - 07/01/21 10:12 AM
Hawkeye, I wouldn’t expect hybrid bluegills to ever spawn. We’re they all hybrids?
Posted By: esshup Re: Finally stocking today - 07/01/21 03:29 PM
Originally Posted by Dave Davidson1
Hawkeye, I wouldn’t expect hybrid bluegills to ever spawn. We’re they all hybrids?

Dave, they will spawn, just because they are hybrid doesn't mean that they are sterile.
Posted By: hawkeye05 Re: Finally stocking today - 07/01/21 03:39 PM
Dave, yes they are all supposed to be hybrids, we didn't put in any bluegills. At least that is what was ordered and delivered according to the fisheries. Was out there again last night and they are really going at it in two different areas, one spot on pea gravel and the other spot on gravel in the shallows for both- there are probably 12 nests total with fish in every one of them--Thanks
Posted By: lmoore Re: Finally stocking today - 07/01/21 03:40 PM
HBG are typically like 90% ish Male, which is why recruitment is limited, but they will spawn. In my limited experience, Green Sunfish traits dominate the further you go down the line (F1, F2, etc).
Posted By: hawkeye05 Re: Finally stocking today - 07/22/21 05:04 PM
update and something odd IMO:

Yesterday (July 21) I observed a hybrid bluegill on a nest beside several other nests occupied by others the same, however on this one particular nest, there were two young perch right beside the hybrid bluegill mimicking every move as if all 3 fish were attached and moved exactly the same way etc. All fish were stocked together on June 3rd of this year as you can see in this thread. These nests are made in a bed of small gravel that we added about a month ago and the water depth is less than a foot where this is taking place. I have never seen anything like this. Three fish moving in unison. The perch slightly smaller than the Hybrid BG
Posted By: anthropic Re: Finally stocking today - 07/23/21 05:36 AM
Hawkeye, I notice similar unusual behavior soon after stocking. It's like the fish are trying to adjust to their new environment and, for a while, aren't quite sure how to behave. Good observation on your part.
Posted By: hawkeye05 Re: Finally stocking today - 08/02/21 05:48 PM
Got 4.5" rain Friday night, new pond within a foot of being full. It came up 3 feet. All structures, spawn areas are under and shallow area now has water. Very cool:)
Posted By: hawkeye05 Re: Finally stocking today - 09/08/21 05:32 PM
Update--- Pond was finished a year ago, pretty much full now, about a foot to go. This spring I hand spread Japanese Millet all along the banks etc. Every day now, I have 30-40 blue wing teal in there devouring all of the millet seed. Really cool to see. I will now spread this every year along my 2 wetlands that I have. I didn't realize it was so easy to grow and with the fluctuating level of my wetlands, this should work well.

Also stocked fish are really growing. Walleye and Red ears coming soon:)
Posted By: RAH Re: Finally stocking today - 09/08/21 06:29 PM
What type/variety of millet are you seeding? I would like to try this.
Posted By: hawkeye05 Re: Finally stocking today - 09/08/21 07:24 PM
"""""""""""""""""""""What type/variety of millet are you seeding? I would like to try this.""""""""""""""""""""""

Just Japanese Millet I got from our local seed dealer. Not sure on the actual Brand etc
Posted By: RAH Re: Finally stocking today - 09/08/21 07:26 PM
Thank you - Japanese millet it is!
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