Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Newbie Here

Hey everyone I dont know if this is the right place to put this, but my name is Justin and I just got a pond put in being part of a watershed project it was put in last summer. I will post pics later, well after the pond got full I put in bluegill hybrid bluegill, bass, catfish, I was going to put crappie in but the weather got to cool for them. The depth of the pond is 18.5 feet and the surface area is about 1.5 acers. Everything has been good so far until this last fall, the company that built the dam went to work on a another site when they got done they notice that the dam was washing out under the outlet tube.

So I went and check out my dam and I was having the same thing happen, before we could see what was going to be done winter settled in. I talked to the NRD and they said that the best thing is that they might just have to do some filling back in behind the tube, and the worst case senior is to tear the dam open and rest the tube.

So since the spring is around the corner what are somethings I could do for the fish, what kind of habit can i put in, (rain came in before i could do anything), this is my first pond and i am wanting to make some big fish, and have a good fishing for my kids someday. Thanks for the input!!!

Hey bassman welcome. In terms of cover I guess I am old school. I like fallen trees bunched together to make brush piles. I like cinder blocks stacked together and rock piles. I would be careful putting in Crappie in your pond. Make sure they are Black Crappie or you will be over ran with them. If it were me I would NOT put crappie in there with all the other fish you have in there already. Or not very many anyway. If you want some nice size bass one day I would leave the crappie out of the pond as they tend to over populate fast, and they will be competing constantly with the bass for all your forage fish. What you have in there already sounds good to me. Course that's just my opinion and I am a rookie at this. Not sure what to tell you about your dam issue maybe someone else here can give you some advise on that.

Welcome Bassman.

Like the Gentleman from Arkansas says, crappie can turn into a real problem in smaller ponds. Most state agencies warn against them in anything less than a lake. The smallest I have heard recommended is 25+ acres. They can easily overspawn, eat most of the forage and then get stunted.

Bob Lusk, the owner of the site, tells about a 100 private acre lake that was overrun with stunted crappie. They found a lot of 4 inch fish that were 7 years old.

Hello Justin (bassman_67) and welcome to Pond Boss. We're glad you found us.

Welcome to the Pond Boss Family of friends.

Welcome to the forum...

What are your goals for the pond?

Trophy bass
Trophy panfish
A nice in between balance
etc...

How many of each and what size did you stock the pond with this past year? Any forage put in like fatheads or golden shiners?

Do you plan to feed or aerate your pond?

There are lots of things you can do to create structure even after the pond has water. Check out this thread in the archives: http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92463#Post92463

Hi Justin

Welcome to the forum - excellent to see another Cornhusker on board.

I love crappie too, but heed the words of advice here - unless you go SINGLE SEX crappie or are up for trying an experiment with Magnolia crappie, LMB and HSB I would resist the urge to introduce crappie to a pond of your size as they will likely overpopulate, stunt, and ruin the rest of your fishery.

I have some ponds built just two years ago outside of Lincoln and would be happy to share my experiences with you anytime. Feel free to PM me if you want to chat.

Good to have you here, Justin. Trust me, it's the NEXT best move you could have made as a pond owner - now become a subscriber to Pond Boss Magazine to round out your addiction!

TJ

I think that crappie have to either be put in a small enough pond to manually control the population or in a large lake with enough predators where they will not naturally overpopulate. My pond is living proof that they can be done in a small pond. My pond is only about 3/4 acre, so half the size of yours. But by keeping on them, meaning removing some crappies, I have been able to grow them quite large along with HBG and bass. I currently have crappies up to 15 inches. I only remove one or two hundred per year and it has so far kepth them in check. I remove them both by fishing and by trapping. They are easy to trap. Having said that, if I had known when I stocked my pond that they can be a problem I may not have put them in. But by being proactive and controlling the population I have made it work. I think the geography of a small pond has everything to do with whether you will be able to control them. My pond is accessible almost all the way around and it has a channel from one large part to another. This makes it easy for me to fish and/or place a trap anywhere I find large concentrations of crappie. While fishing, I note areas that are heavy with small crappie then that's where I put the trap. When I stop catching many small crappie each day I move on. Of course my channel is the most productive spot. I also put in two docks, they seem to attract the smaller crappie so I can usually trap them right beside the docks easily. I only have to get the trap out and actively work at it about twice a year for 3 or 4 days at a time. The crappie I take out are usually 3 to 5 inches long. So that means I'm not catching the smallest ones. The fact that only one or two hundred make it to that size tells me that the rest are probably adding to my forage base as food for the larger crappie, bass, and HBG. So I'm not sure if this hasn't been a really good idea after all. Whether you can control the population will also depend on how much spawning area you have. I made my pond with as steep of sides as I could just to limit spawning area. I figured in such a small pond I can't have anything spawning real heavy. That's also why I went with HBG versus regular. I'm not an expert on stocking but this is my current experience. Others on the forum can help you more.

Very interesting first hand experience bz. Thanks for sharing it!

Well said BZ.

BZ your right, trapping is a great way to control fish. one of my homemade traps has a 2" opening and I use it to thin out the Medium size PS's.

Another Nebraskan here, bassman. Welcome to the best thing to happen to ponds since water.

Great post BZ. Very cool. Sounds like you'd have to have constant access to your BOW to make this work. Bassman, is this pond on a property you will be living on or have consistent access to?

Ok you got one guy making it work but with some pretty good effort! Sounds to me bassman if you want to do Crappie you better be ready to have a good plan in place to manage them. Like Omaha said do you have access to your pond 24/7 to manage it? If so you might be able to make it work, but if what BZ said above sounds like to much work for you then you may want to reconsider.

BZ and AP

Not to hijack, but PLEASE send us more information RE your traps...how are they constructed - where are they placed - are they baited, etc. This is valuable information I need WRT my BG population.

You should write an article on this...many of us would benefit and I don't believe I've ever seen an article on trapping overpopulated species only seining them.

Thanks in advance...thanks for sharing your experience, BZ - good stuff!

TJ, my traps are made like the little minnow traps you see in the store except bigger. I used 3ft. high plastic fencing with 1/4 inch mesh. The trap cylinder is 3ft. long and 1ft. in diameter. you can use wire or zip ties to hold it together. One end is covered with mesh and half of that is fashioned into a door with mini bungees holding it closed. A large funnel is made out of mesh and attached into the other end. The plastic mesh is very buoyant so attach a piece of metal pipe or stock to the bottom.
For bait I mainly use beef liver, but I'm sure there are many other good baits.
The traps are usually placed near some structure like submerged tree branches.
There's nothing fancy about these traps and there are probably better more efficient designs out there.

I learn something new every day on the Forum thanks to guys like you. This is great...AP, have you learned how to post pictures yet? Sure would be nice to have a visual aid...but I get the picture [no pun intended]. Thanks, yet again.

PS: Can you send me any pics you have of the creek on your land? I need a pick me up today - your cascading creek would do nicely.

TJ

I can't send any pics now, I'm at my daughters house babysitting, but I'll be going to the cabin next week and try to remember to take photo's of a trap.
I know what you mean about a pick me up, it's 24 degrees with lake effect snow and gusts to 40mph here in the Mohawk valley.

PS. bassman welcome to the forum and enjoy your pond.

Bassman, think about BZ's post. He is successful where most have failed. However, he has brought an intensity to ponding that not many have. In other words, he has worked his butt off to make it work.

Not many people want to 'enjoy' their pond to that level.

Dave D is correct, part of my point is that if you are willing to work and have a pond that lends itself to manual population control, you can make crappie work. My pond is 100 feet out my back door and spend a lot of time there and I work at it hard. I only spend 4 to 10 days a year trapping but I would guess with a larger pond or more spawning area one could easily need to trap more fish to keep them under control.

Regarding traps, I make mine similar to what adirondack describes except mine are just rectangular and I don't use bait. I have some pictures somewhere but I can't seem to find them now. They are 3 feet tall, 4 feet wide, and 3 feet deep. I used a similar plastic mesh, 1/2 inch I believe. I used 1.5 inch pvc pipe to construct the frame. I enclosed the bottom and sides of the "box" with mesh, the top is open, which makes it easy to dump the fish out. I leave the air trapped in the PVC to make sure it floats. On the two largest sides I simply cut round holes (one per side) about 12 inches diameter in the mesh, then I used nylon cable ties to attach entrance funnels that are simply made from the same plastic mesh. The funnels are 12 inches diameter on the large end to match the holes in the sides and whatever size you need on the small end to catch the fish you are going after. My small ends are about 3 inches. I use nylon ties to hold all the mesh together on the frame. The cones are pointed inward toward the inside of the trap so when a fish enters it cannot easily find it's way back out. The cones are long enough to reach about half way across the trap. I attach a tight wire from the small end of each cone accross to the mesh on the other side to keep the cones standing straight out perpendicular to the side they are mounted to. The cones on each side need to be staggered so one does not line up with the other. I simply anchor this trap anywhwere I want. Most of the time I'm setting it in 3 to 5 feet of water so sometimes it sets on the bottom, other times it doesn't quite reach to the bottom. I don't use bait, the fish just swim along and hit the sides, when they try to find a way around the trap some of them end up going into the funnel entrances. You would be surprised how many you can catch this way. Some times I can catch 50 crappie in an hour or two if you find the right spot. This trap works well for crappie and bluegill but I don't think I hardly ever catch a bass. I'll try to find the pictures.

Hey you guys thanks for the info and advice and i will look for the paper that has my fish and all the sizes and i will post them.

Here are some pics of when the pond was being built i will have some pics of the pond complete done and full, then come this spring on the repair work that has to be done.

Any luck on those pix BZ? I can envision what you're describing...but a visual would be helpful if you stumble across them sometime. Thanks!

Nice pics and even nicer setting, bassman. Thanks.
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That being said, if water has found it's way along the length of the pipe, it is likely questionable soils around the pipe...or questionable compaction...or no anti-seep collars (did you use any?)...or all of the above.
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Do you know the soil quality used around the pipe? How was it compacted?
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What's the re-hab plan for the spring?

The problem with the leak is a compaction problem, the best case to happen is to go a little bit of digging around the tube,the worst case is to have them break the dam open and to completely reset the tubes. The soil is a gumbo clay type soil and how they compacted it is that they took a steam roller over it to compact it. And i do not think that we put in any anti-seep collars.

TJ here is a photo of one of my homemade traps, pretty simple, mostly plastic fencing, but I added a wooden hoop at one end to help keep it's shape.