Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Help on existing pond!

Hello everyone! this is my first post on here but I have read alot of good information already and I need some input on what to do with a old pond we just aquired.

The pond is about 1 acre in size and varys in depth from 2feet at the shallow end to 12feet off of the dam, I have cought several bass that are 12" in length and are pretty skinny, I have seen several more swimming around that are about the same size, the bluegill and bream vary in size from 3in to the size of your hand.

The water is very clear I can see about 4feet to the bottom I think it needs to be fertilized because right now there is no plankton in the water column I dont think, there is alot of algae on the bottom of the pond, from what I have read so far if I fertilize it right the algae on the bottom will not be able to get sunlight and it will be better for the food chain.

I have the video from Ray Scott called GREAT SMALL WATERS and it tells you so much information about the food chain and fertilizing and fish ratios for ponds, I also have dropped 3 big trees into the pond 4 weeks ago for structure and I plan on putting some pallet structure in this week if I can find some time, I would like to put a water fall of some tipe with a pvc syphon to aerate the pond in the near future,

anyway the fish truck is coming to town this thursday and I am thinking about buying some type of feeder fish and maybe a few carp to keep the algae down.
I need some direction on what kind of feeder fish and what size I need to buy?

I have been fishing since I could hold a rod in my hand and I love to fish, it is so relaxing and SOOO much fun, I have been around ponds and fish all my life so I am not a newbie to ponds or fish.
I hope this is enough information and I am open to any advice you all might have, My goal is to have bass in the 3-8pound range in the future and some good size bream. I just need to know what kind of fish do you think I need in this pond to get it balanced? because right now I think the bass that are in there are stunted and from what I have read they will not get much bigger so I will start removing them a few at a time. Sorry for such a long post but I want to make sure you have enough information on what I have and the future plans!

You have an unusual situation. With skinny 12 inch bass, you should have no 3 inch bluegill. You might need to fertilize to get it to 18 to 24 inches of visibility. Do you have any structure for small forage fish to hide in and for bass to use as ambush areas?

Essentially, the bass sizes and health are determined by the condition and numbers of their forage.

If it were me, I would start out by eliminating any bass under 13 inches and feeding the BG. When you no longer catch skinny bass, start monitoring and reassesing. Lots of good feeders out there and I don't think you can go wrong with a Sweeney. Load it with Purina Game Fish Chow. It comes in multiple pellet sizes.

those were my exact thoughts but I wanted a second opinon!

I will get it fertilized this week, What Fertilizer is good?

I do have some structure in there now, there is one floating dock that I anchored out in the middle of the pond hoping that when it gets hot in the summer the fish will hide in the shade under the dock

There is also 3 big trees that I cut down and laid in the water about 3-4 weeks ago, I`ve not seen very many fish around these trees, how long does it take for them to relate to the trees?

As far as other structure I have access to alot of brick that I would like to make some structure in the deep water and shallow if needed!

As I mentioned in the above the post the fish truck will be running this week and I dont know if I need to buy any fish or just wait and remove the small bass and try fertilizing the pond, what is your thoughts on this!

Also thanks for your reply Dave! I am open to any input you guys have!!!

Read this thread from the archives before you make the decision

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=96127#Post96127

Either way you will need to take out some 12in LMB. and probably add some adult BG.

I doubt that the fish truck will have large bluegills. The small ones that they bring would fit nicely in the mouth of those skinny LMB. That would get expensive. Like Eric says, first eliminate the problem of the starving bass. You may need to do some minnow fishing. Be patient. If you can clobber enough small bass, you should have plenty of forage.

Looks like I`ve got some fishing to do!!

What is the best way to rig live minnows to catch these bass? like under a bober with a hook through the fin or through the lips?

Should I catch the minnows out of the pond or buy them from a bait and tackle store? the minnows I can see in the pond are about 1-2inches in length.

I`m asking these questions because I only use artificial baits and am not very familiar with fishing live minnows, I can see the bass swimming so I think I need to somehow dangle some minnows in front of them and I think they would bite pretty well!!

Once agian thanks for all of the help!! I really do appreciate it!!! I am determined to turn this pond around and have healthy fish in it.

I rig minnows both ways and don't really see a great deal of advantage for either. I think you will lose more when lip hooking them.

I often buy minnows but prefer the larger ones. At three bucks per dozen around here, that comes out to two bits each. I just realized that. Dang! I don't catch a bass for every minnow I offer.

You can buy a minnow trap for less then $10 and catch minnows and small BG. I bait mine with pellets and it works great. I put some pellets in a paint strainer bag and toss it in the trap along with some loose pellets. Then I toss a small handful by the trap to sucker small fish to it. There's no better bass bait than a 2 to 3 inch bluegill. Other BG won't rob your bait as often as they do minnows. Try circle hooks. They are very effective when using live bait. Dangling a minnow in front of a bass that can see you doesn't work as well as getting it out from shore a little bit. You can really murder the smaller bass when you feed the BG. They get drawn to the feeding sounds.

Have fun and get some kids involved. Of course, tossing fish on the bank can get a little traumatic for kids. That's when you explain the predator/prey relationship to them.

I went and got two minnow traps and set them out, so hopefully I`ll be able to catch the bass a little bit easier than with artificial bait, also what is good bait for minnow traps? I tried some small chese blocks because I didn`t have any pellets, any better ideas?

Alright some more questions, I`m thinking about removing 12" bass and under first?

I forgot to tell you fellows there is some crappie in this pond too, I have caught 10 so far that are about as big as your hand,will these fish eat to many of the baitfish? should I remove these fish or just the small bass? what are yalls thoughts?

Since you are after big bass, I suggest removing all Crappie.

Thanks Theo Gallus!! that is what I was thinking, I just got back from seeing the fish truck and I bought 2 grass carp about 12" long and 100 hybrid bluegill about 2-3" long, I probably wasted my money on the bluegill because the bass that are in there now will probably eat all of them Oh well I`m going fishing this afternoon and hope to catch some more bass!

Here is an update on my pond!

Tonight me and a buddy went fishing and we caught

3 bass 12" long

5 bream 4" long

26 crappie 6-8" long

Needless to say I did not know this pond was infested with crappie, this thing is chock full!!! of skinny crappie all of them were paper thin and within 2" of the exact same size, we caught 5 fish on 5 cast one after another, we released the bream and kept the crappie and the bass, I`m pretty sure we could go back tomorrow and catch that many crappie again, this explains why I have been catching small bass, the crappie are eating ALL the minnows and not leaving any food for the bass, I think I am going to try to get as many of the crappie out as possible, ANY ADVICE on what to do??????

Kill'm Kill'm All (and eat'm)

They`re so thin its just like skin and bones, not even worth cleaning in my opinion!!! OMG that was the funniest reply I`ve ever read OK 12 Acre Lake!!!!, how do you post pics on here? because I`ve got some pics from the last time we went

See the Archive thread on Posting Photos.

Yep, in your situation, you did waste your $ on the hybrid bluegill. They don't spawn. Ok, they do, but is very erratic.

You need big bluegill that can escape bass (and crappie) predation. They are your spawners. You might also find a couple more buddies to fight the crappie.

With that many crappie for groceries, I'm surprised that you don't have some bigger bass. You probably do but they don't need to bite any kind of fooler.

Bassfshr...

You can try to seine out some of your crappie. You can pick up a seine and circle it around with a canoe or jonboat while you throw out some pellets to make them come in and feed. You can usually find them online. Check e-Bay maybe. You can also continue to fish with minnows for your crappie. These two methods should help your situation. When you catch a crappie, if they are too skinny to clean, cut off the tail fin so that can't swim very fast and toss them back in. Makes a tasty meal for your 12-14 inch bass. If they are more than about 5 inches, just toss them in the garden for fertilizer. This will also help you get rid of any other "surprise" fish that may show up.

I am sure this has been covered in other threads but I thought it might be better to cover the whole situation. App. 25+ acre lake in Indiana. 5 years ago we caught lots of bass of all sizes, Walleye of all sizes, tons of large 1 lb area bluegill and a few enormous (15-19") crappie. Fast forward to today we are catching hundreds of 7-10" crappie, not the paper thin fish but still literally hundreds of smaller fish. The bass seem to be fewer and smaller (or they are gorging on crappies and I cannot catch the big ones) and much fewer/smaller bluegill. Obviously I have a serious crappie problem but the only thing that has really changed is the loss of a number of very large hybrid striped bass due to old age. My two questions- any ideas on helping to control the crappies and will hybrid striped bass help to control a crappie population. This may seem like an odd question about the stripers but they do not have nearly the size of the mouth that a largemouth does, even in a 10+ lb fish. We are catching and cleaning hundreds of these darn crappie but it seems to not even make a dent. They are 95% of what we are catching. Any ideas would be appreciated. Also does anyone know the water temp that crappies generally spawn?

Ewest does.

EFish

Spawning occurs around April at 15-20°C

Low 60s F

Have you thought about starting over. It souns radical but it may be the quickest and easiest way to get rid of crappies and get your pond back in balance. I would look in to how much it would cost to kill all the fish and stock the lake.

Sometimes State DNRs will provide fish for ponds that do not have any fish in them. Illinois has a program that does this.

told you.

Thanks for all the help fellows, I`m still catching crappie right and left,I caught 4 crappie on 4 cast the other night, I did see one bass that would go about 3lbs so that was good to see, I tried the minnow traps but no luck at catching any maybe I`m not baiting them right or putting the trap in the right place any suggestions on this?

Stout, HSB and crappie are a perfect combination. Both crappie & HSB prefer deeper water in summer, and HSB can only eat a fish 3" in size so it makes for a good fit.

I will be adding both to my new pond as soon as it fills up.