Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Renovating an old bass pond

I recently moved on an 8 acre pond in SC that I will be taking over the management of and have some questions. The pond has an ok LB population but the bass are skinny, most are 10-12" the rest are 4 to 10#. I see signs of brim beds but not what I would think are a lot. The pond does have a lot of white perch. Water quality is good. Now the questions. Are the white perch as bad for the pond as I think? How could I get rid of them? What is the best bait to stock..crayfish, fathead minnows, thread fins?

Thanks for your help...

It may be premature to stock anything until you get the white perch/crappie under control.

Here's my thoughts. Crappie have inconsistent and variable spawns with each female throwing approximately 22,000+ eggs. They also spawn before the other fish. Yeah, they can be a problem and I think you have correctly identified them as the culprit.

The skinny 12' inch fish are missing the 2 to 3 inch bg that they need. Since you seem to have a gap in your sizes, I expect the crappie either clobbered those year classes or they starved out due to heavy bg predation by crappie or by heavy predation on those years age classes by all members of the pond community.

That said, I have no idea how to eliminate crappie from an 8 acre water hole. There has been some discussions about hybrid stripers being a good predator for crappie. I like the idea but don't know of anyone who has tried it.

Thanks for the reply! I'm not sure if it matters but they are white perch, I have not seen any crappie in the pond as of yet. But I'm sure they are what is keeping down the BG population as you said. I know I need to get the bait level higher in the pond but I don't want to go broke feeding FHM to the perch. Would crayfish be a good solution?

Is this type of white perch you are talking about? If so these white perch are bad news.

That would be them. What can I do?

Are the white perch in the water shed above the pond too? Drainning and starting over would be the best option if you can keep the white perch out. If not, the other option would be to keep your pond very predator heavy. Are there any threadfin shad present in your pond too? If not, do not stock threadfin shad. We have two area lakes with white perch, the one with gizzard shad has gobs of stunted white perch as they are low on the prefence list for most predators. The one without the predators keep their numbers thinned down to where the white perch do not stunt.

Are you positve they are white perch and not white bass or something else?

Yep, definitely white perch, 4-8". It's an 8 acre pond that I live on with 4 other houses around it. So draining is out of the question. The pond does not have any drainage above to bring in unwanteds. (3 feet low now due to no rain) No shad of any type that I have seen, only some small shore minnows. There is very little cover in the pond. I plan on sinking some brush that may give the bass a better chance at cracking down on the perch.

Is rotenone an option? I don't know about S.C., but in Nebraska the G&P will sell the stuff cheap to a pond owner.

Not sure what is it?

This should help explain rotenone.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=119312&fpart=1

Don't think the neighbors would care for that!!!

Sounds like catching as many as I can and hopeing the bass take care of the rest is my best bet. Thanks for the help I’m sure I’ll be around with more questions soon.

Skeeter Joe, with white perch present you likely have to put up with skinny LMB to keep the white perch under control. In the 1800 acre lake near Lincoln that has Gshad and White Perch our Game & Parks department has stocked the lake heavily with flathead catfish to combat the white perch, the problem is that the flathead also eat the other more desirable fish in the lake too. With Gshad present the white operch rarely exceed 5" in this lake. Here is a picture of a 40# flathead from last year from this lake lots of white perch & Gshad. I'm sure this one could easily eat a 5lb bass for lunch.

I might have to run over to Santee Cooper and get one like that! I have caught some cats, chanel I think, up to 4lb.

Skeeter just got back from working in SC if you want another opinion let us know. Yes you are on the right track it seems. See what kind of progress you can make on the WP this year by removing those when caguht. Also I suggest since your starting to run relative weights on your bas. This wil tell you if they are getting fatter or not. Many other mgmt advice you can gather here as well. Thanks

Shorty that is a big catfish imagine how big it would look if done in the Condello pose.

Greg, I'm not sure if I could stretch my arms out that far and still hold the fish, this one is a little over 40#.

We should see if we can get Condello to talk about the two public lakes that have white perch in them near Lincoln, Pawnee and Branched Oak Lake. The one with GShad (BO) has more "issues" with WP than one (P) without GShad. There is an ongoing study to figure out why, the current thinking is that the GShad are much more prefered over the WP as prey items and when given a choice the WP will be ignored as a prey item which then leads to the WP stunting. Lots of very hungry stunted white perch are then thought to be very detrimental to the reproduction of other more desirable species of fish in the lake. Both flatheads and wipers are strictly catch and release at Branched Oak in an attempt to get the Wp numbers under control.

Alright, one more flathead picture from 2006 from our WP infested public lake, this one is an early attempt at the Condello fish picture taking techinque.

Boy, did I blow that one. I have heard crappie called white perch and made an assumption. Sorry about that.