I am going to be stocking a new 1 acre pond soon and I had a question but some of the fish to stock. First, I want to have a trophy bass fishery but the idea of bringing in a 30 pound blue catfish is also exciting. Is mixing catfish and bass a good idea or no? Also debating on the type of largmouth to get. Love the aggressiveness of the northerns but the size of floridas is crazy. any thoughts?
Guess I would stock the one that’s easier to catch..... I have bucket stocked bass and some have topped double digit in 7 years
Blue cats(BC) as individuals larger than 24" become major predators as eating as much or more fish per day/year as bass because the BC are gaining more weight per year needing more food to do it. If you use both BC and LMB be sure to do good homework as to what species of forage fish will long term provide enough food to keep them growing. 10lb BC will probably be regularly eating 10" to 13" LMB and similar sized fish. 20lb(twenty) BC can/will eat 2 lb bass. If the BC are reproducing you could have too many predator problems.
I am going to be stocking a new 1 acre pond soon and I had a question but some of the fish to stock. First, I want to have a trophy bass fishery but the idea of bringing in a 30 pound blue catfish is also exciting. Is mixing catfish and bass a good idea or no? Also debating on the type of largmouth to get. Love the aggressiveness of the northerns but the size of floridas is crazy. any thoughts?
What's your definition of a trophy bass?
Also Blue Cats are more of an open water/river species. With a large catfish (30 lbs) in one acre there will not be much else there and it will not be gape limited to any size LMB or BG. Here is some info on Flathead cats but it is almost as equally applicable to large Blues as well.
North American Journal of Fisheries Management
Article: pp. 198�202
Gape:Body Size Relationship of Flathead Catfish
Joe E. Slaughter IVa,,1 and Brad Jacobsonb
a) Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife Resources Division, 2065 U.S. Highway 278 SE, Social Circle, Georgia 30025, USA
b) Arizona Game and Fish Department, Region IV, 9140 East 28th Street, Yuma, Arizona 85365, USA
Abstract.
The flathead catfish Pylodictis olivaris is a highly piscivorous ictalurid native to central North America whose range has been extended throughout much of the United States. With this range expansion, many populations of native fishes have experienced declines in the number of individuals due to direct predation by flathead catfish. Previous evidence suggests that flathead catfish are opportunistic feeders and may be the least gape limited of North American freshwater piscivores. To better understand the size of prey vulnerable to flathead catfish, we measured gape dimensions for individuals of various sizes to determine the maximum size prey a flathead catfish can kill based on its gape limitations. Our results show the relationship of total length to horizontal and vertical gape and the relationship of flathead catfish total length to the total lengths of ingestible-sized prey of different body shapes. Furthermore, comparisons of the body depth of three common fish species to the gape dimensions showed that no size of largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides, bluegill Lepomis macrochirus, or gizzard shad Dorosoma cepedianum would preclude predation by flathead catfish. Our results support the assumption that the flathead catfish is one of the least gape-limited piscivores.
Received: January 31, 2006; Accepted: May 4, 2007; Published Online: February 11, 2008
DOI: 10.1577/M06-033.1
North American Journal of Fisheries Management 2008;28:198�202
Agree with others, a 30+ pound Blue will not only compete for the same food as your bass, it'll also happily eat them. I would choose one or the other, but if you decided to do it anyway, if it were me, I'd toss in food (dead shad, or other cut bait) for the Blue cat(s) as often as you can, to maybe deter it from eating your bass and eating up all the live food.
@Bill, I think you may have forgot a 0 in there, because I don't think a 2lb BC can eat a 2lb LMB, but a 20-pounder definitely can.
Cody Note - I fixed the 0 in my post above. thanks for the editorial catch.
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=849You 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.