Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Electroshocking

Okay, folks. Here's the report I just filed with James about the status of his fishery. He gave permission. Ordinarily, this is proprietary with a client, but he wants all of you to see it. I'm working on photos for the next thread. Will post them shortly. Enjoy.


BOB LUSK
Fisheries Biologist & Lake Management Consultant
P.O. Box 483
Whitesboro, Texas, 76273
(903)564-5372
(903)564-5173 fax
e-mail pondboss@texoma.net
October 31, 2010

James Holt, DDS
600 E. Southlake Blvd, Suite 100
Southlake, Texas, 76092

Dear James,

Great day today! Air temperature was 75 degrees and the water was 68 on this Halloween Sunday. Using our 18 foot Smith-Root electrofishing boat, we got an excellent sample, representative of all species of fish from your lake.
Here’s a table of different species and size classes of fish we captured and/or observed.



Knowing your goals are to grow giant largemouth bass and the biggest hybrid stripers, bluegill and channel cat that you can, the dynamics are sure looking good. Interesting…and good. Actually, you’ve taken a pretty good largemouth bass lake and have turned it into a rising star of a hybrid striped bass lake…with a budding largemouth bass population tagging along. There are a few obstacles to overcome, however.
As many fish as you have stocked and all the things you are doing to manage the pond, stock it, enlarge it, feed it and aerate it, there are a couple of things that stand in your way to achieve those goals. Ironically, your lake is affected by several things that you DIDN’T do…such as gizzard shad and crappie.
The first, and biggest obstacle, is your crappie. They are white crappie and I understand you didn’t stock them. But, they are there in fairly large numbers with four size classes (two age classes). That means you’ve probably had a few larger ones since early-on, right after the lake first filled. The crappie are definitely overeating your food chain in big numbers at smaller levels. Specifically, they are overeating young of the year bluegill…and most other newly hatched fish, except shad. You noticed we shocked up many, many crappie in the biggest brush pile…which should also be a safe haven for young bluegill. As we went around the lake, we saw thousands of newly hatched bluegill along the shore, hovering in mats of algae and rooted plants. When they exit stage left, they will soon go the way of the mastodon…extinct. Crappie feed on baby bluegill and redear sunfish. White crappie, compared to black crappie, reproduce more prolifically and don’t get quite as large in ponds. That can compound the problem.
The second effect is the resounding success, so far, of your hybrid striped bass stocking program. The hybrid stripers are well fed, not only from the high protein AquaMax nuggets tossed regularly from your feeders, but also by big numbers of young gizzard shad…which you didn’t stock, either. The gizzard shad are playing a significant, positive role in the fishery. Here’s how we can tell. Gizzard shad’s nature is to reproduce heavily, grow rapidly, become too large, get crowded, give off a pheromone which stops reproduction and then await their fate. Usually, when they get crowded, their food chain diminishes and they have a winter die-off after a couple or three years. But, the fact we saw four size classes with diminished numbers of larger shad suggests hybrid stripers are actively utilizing gizzard shad as a mainstay food source. The body condition of those hybrids suggests the same. You have the same age class of hybrid stripers but their size ranges are dramatic.
Here’s a length/weight graph of the hybrid stripers we captured, weighed and measured.




As you look at the curve, notice some fish are to the right of the curve. Those hybrid stripers are in the best condition of the population. It appears they are benefitting from the fish food as well as gizzard shad. I don’t have a relative weight chart for hybrid stripers, but your hybrid striped bass are doing very, very well for their age-class. One recommendation…step up your feeding from the dock feeder and use AquaMax 600 for hybrid striped bass. Set your feeder to go off three times a day, until feeding subsides in cooler weather. This move should take more of the fish on the left side of the curve and move them toward the right.
Here are the graphs from your largemouth bass. There are some interesting things going on with your bass, too.



Notice the clump of bass to the right of the curve in the 15-17 inch size class. It’s not “normal” to see this in a four year old lake. But, looking at the fish, it’s easy to tell exactly what’s going on. That cluster of fish represents feed-trained largemouth bass. When I saw them and that distinctive bluish hue, I knew you had some feed-trained fish. Then, when I ran the numbers, it was easy to see.
You have a better bass population than you think. Here again, crappie are a problem. While the smaller crappie are part of the diet of your larger bass, the majority of your bass are actually competing with crappie for food and structure/cover. When the electrofishing boat hit structure that held bass, we also shocked up numbers of crappie. Toss in one fact we already know…crappie are eating baby bluegill…therein lies your conundrum. Crappie might be food for bigger bass, but the riddle lies in how much a crappie eats.
Part of the recommendations I typically make when I see a bass population as yours is to begin culling intermediate-sized fish.
Not here, not yet.
The crappie play a big role in the dynamics of your food chain. Focus on the crappie, get rid of as many as you can and you’ll see the bluegill numbers rise. As bluegill numbers rise, bass growth will follow. As bass growth rises with bluegill frequency, the mass of bass will increase both in sizes and numbers, as relative weight rises. Then, we’ll talk about which bass to harvest.
Take a look at your bass length distribution.




Recruitment is moderate to low. In your lake, that’s a good thing. You noticed some very small bass, not characteristic of most lakes this time of year. However, most lakes I’ve analyzed recently have 3-4” largemouth bass. The 10-11” fish are spring bass, probably spawned early April, 2010. Their numbers are low, suggesting the multitude and diversity of species of predators in your lake are keeping largemouth bass recruitment, along with bluegill and redear, in check. Fewer small bass leads to better growth rates of your intermediate bass, once the crappie numbers diminish.
The majority of your bass can also feed heavily on the smaller gizzard shad, the most numerous of that species. That fact will aid in bass growth and assist the dynamics of the gizzard shad as well. Meaning? When more gizzard shad are eaten (or disappear) from the system, the more are hatched successfully next year…so more baby shad next year can support more game fish next year.
I just thought of an observation you might find interesting. As we went around the lake, remember where we saw gizzard shad. Most of the smallest, young of the year fish we found in open water, in the main body of the lake. The largest shad were in coves or next to the shallowest shoreline, especially where plants are. Gizzard shad’s nature is to root around on the bottom. They are called gizzard shad because they have a gizzard. They need the gizzard to crush what they eat, insects, mussels, snails, worms and the like. Many people don’t understand that gizzard shad are primarily bottom feeders and have a tendency to increase turbidity in ponds when overcrowded. While they primarily feed on the bottom, gizzards also have long gill rakers, meaning they can glean some of their food from the water, too. Baby shad often feed via filtering plankton, but as they grow, it doesn’t take long for them to figure out they, too, can root around in the mud and find more food. When they do that, largemouth bass have an advantage to eat them. Essentially, gizzard shad move into a niche that largemouth bass prefer. Gizzard shad are a big reason your bass are not seriously underweight at this point.
Okay, so what’s next?
Here are my recommendations.
1) Remove all crappie you can, until your bass and hybrid stripers grow large enough to be effective predators of them. I’ve got an idea how to do this…
2) Tweak your feeding program. Use the feeder on your dam dock primarily to feed the hybrid stripers and anything which dares to come to that water. Feed larger feed here, AquaMax 600, at least. Feed twice daily here, exactly at the same time as two of the feedings recommend below. I don’t think you need to feed more feed, I think you need to change the way you do it, for better distribution. Right now, you have “feed hogs” that benefit most
3) Use the feeder nearest the house for bluegill. Mix AquaMax 600 with 500 and see what happens. Your best bluegill should flock to that feed. Set the timer to feed three times daily, about four hours apart, in smaller spurts. That way, more fish feed. By using smaller feed, you target a missing link in your food chain. Again, I don’t think you need to feed more feed, I think you need to change the way you do it.
4) Put a feeder on the big dock and feed similar to recommendation #3.
5) Turn off your aeration system before Christmas and start it back about the third week of February.
6) Focus on bluegills! Preserve, protect, spawn…add cover, structure and habitat.
7) Consider stocking tilapia next year. In your case, tilapia could be the advantage you need, once we can remove bunches of crappie, to reproduce adequately to assist building the bluegill population. An added plus will be their propensity to control algae, turning that nasty scum into food.
8) You asked about catfish. They are obviously reproducing with reasonable success. Harvest catfish, too. I think you need to be taking all channel catfish from 3 lbs and larger out of the system. They don’t really fit into your goals. Eat them, share them, roast them over an open fire with capers, deep fry in peanut oil, coated with Louisiana Fish Fry. Add hushpuppies.
9) You asked about adding more feed-trained largemouth and hybrid stripers. For now, your non-fed fish need attention. Pay attention to them and then think about adding more feed trained fish. I think we will want to watch water quality for a year to make sure you aren’t taxing the system with what you are doing already.

Those are my thoughts and recommendations. After you get a chance to think about it, digest and reflect, drop me a note and let’s discuss.

Many thanks,


Bob Lusk
Fisheries biologist

Wow. Great read.

Debbie and James were the "scappers", dipping all the fish.


We caught a few good bluegills, but not as many as James expected.


Just a small sample of the shad we saw.


Here are his gizzard shad, up close.


This is the brush pile where we got lots of small crappie.


Lots of fish, fast.

I have more images...the Queen wants to go to dinner. More in a little bit.

Nice Hybrid Striped bass.


A different perspective.


Nice, eh?


Big Channel Cat, too.

Now that is a REPORT !!!!

Here's a picture for George.


And, one for Bruce.

I love you guys!



It was a good day!

Thanks Bob and Mr. James Holt great info.

Wow! I agree with all the sentiments expressed here already - very cool reading! Thanks James for sharing that with us, and thanks Bob for that great report!

Thank you Bob! I read Bob's book about raising trophy bass just before he shocked the pond and have a new appreciation for what Bob does and the knowledge he has. I would highly recommend having Bob come out and help you with your goals. The first surprise I had was that I had a lot of crappie because I have only caught one this year. If Bob had not shocked the pond I would be unaware I even had a surplus crappie problem. The second surprise I had was the huge numbers of shad. I knew there were a lot of shad but not that many. I was also surprised I was low on bluegill numbers they must hang around the feeders because we catch bluegill on a regular basis. I was surprised that the hybrids were in very shallow water up where the creek comes in eating shad out of the brush. I am still thinking about the report Bob has given me and hoping some people on the forum can teach me how to catch crappie. I can tell you when I first bought this pond and drained it the pond was full of very large crappie and not a single forage species. It also had some very large bass in it that we left but have not caught they may have died. We tried to remove all of the crappie using dip nets in only about a foot of water when we had drained the pond down to just mud. I thought we had removed them all but it rained the next day and instead of the pond totally drying up it filled back up to about half an acre. Some of the original crappie must have survived. I don't think that I explained to Bob that I have stocked hybrid striped bass four times from Todd Overton and so the hybrids are not all the same age. The first time I stocked it with only a very few hybrids that were very small in bags just to see if they would even survive. I then saw that they were doing very well and had Todd bring his truck the next couple of times with fish that were large enough not to be eaten. I really don't know for sure how the shad got in the pond but I suspect the big flood we had about three years ago brought them in along with the bull heads.

Hey Bob and James, thanks for the report and especially the pictures.
I liked Bruce's picture the best.....

Fabulous HSB James!

Thanks James and Bob. Extremely informative. Great looking fishery too.

February at the Holt's House......tasty!

Awesome report, couple questions?.. When you shock the fish do they die, I thought no but seen there in a pic looked like a tub of dead ones? also when can you come do my lake? Cost? I didn't relize when you electrofish a pond you (Bob) give such a detailed report and answers to fix/improve a pond.

I think the fish are just stunned (or sleeping as opposed to taking the old dirt nap).

It depends. How do you like that answer? Not too good I bet.

ES can kill fish but done correctly does not kill very many , if any (very small % of those shocked). Keep in mind that only a small % of the fish are usually shocked (its only a sample). ES can be used to remove fish (overcrowded condition) in which case you shock a higher % but that is the goal.

The it depends part is a result of a # of things like water conditions , ES generator settings , time of year/water temp/ stress factors , type of fish , etc.

Sunil....do you have a swimming pool?

As far as I could tell none of the fish were killed except for the crappie which were killed with a filet knife and deep fried in peanut oil.

That last part was just to make sure the killing was complete, huh?

... and I thought those crappie on the ground were just skinny.

Guys,
No fish were killed. When you look at that photo, the fish were freshly stunned and hadn't revived, yet. It takes about five minutes. That live well pumps fresh water all the time, if I want it to. We take extra special care of the fish.
James and I will be working on a field day at his place in February...workshop, harvest, fellowship of the Pond Boss nation. Maybe a Super Bowl party?
Start thinking about it.

Some Texan needs to consider a "field day" before 12/31...I still have a valid TX non-resident hunting licsense that begging to have some deer put on it!