Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations reproducing catfish

Hello everyone and anyone:
This past weekend I was catfishing in my pond. 4 years ago I put 100 blue channel, 150 LMB, 300BG in my pond. I caught 6 saturday nite, largest being 5.8 lbs smallest 4 lbs. sunday nite I fished again and caught a 2.2lb blue cat. My questions is can this be an offspring from my cats? I did in fact add about 10 old ceramic culvert type pipes in hopes that my cats would reproduce. Could this cat just be a slow grower or maybe a couple years old????

Good question, Brian.

I stocked a hundred CC four years ago and the ones I have caught this year ranged from 16" (not much over a pound) to 26" (4+ lbs, I would guess). My assumption is that my smaller CC are slow growers, based on the lack of observation/catch of fingerling-sized CC since the original stockers and the relatively thin condition they have. But given that my pond, like yours, has possible catfish spawning structures in it, I really don't know for sure.

Perhaps I'll have to wait and see if any CC remain after I've taken a hundred or so out - that may be a few years.

How did the condition of the small BC compare with the big ones? Skinny or robust?

I have blues and channels in a small pond. For a few years now when I feed I see a small one pound blue when the rest are four or five.
Also I don't think blues spawn until they are about five pounds. My channels spawn every year but I haven't seen any baby blues yet. Maybe the structure (rocks) aren't big enough for the blues to want to use.
My guess is that you have a slow grower.

Hi theo:
It did not look too bad and I could handle it easily with one hand. That is the smallest cat that I have caught in two years, even last year I seemed to catch Cats over 3.5lbs. Also, Theo what part of Ohio are you in?

Lickin' County, 35 miles East of C'lumbus.

If you want to sacrifice a small cat (or at least a spine off one), you could try cross-sectional aging as discussed in the last PB Mag.

Central Texas here and stocked about 200 cc and about 20-30 lbs. of fatheads five years ago. The pond is about 1.5 acres and red from suspended clay and no structure except a few trees that were pushed in the bottom. A few blue gill were put in but did not know if they would survive the muddy water climate. Best fish taken is 11-12 lbs., 30 inches this year and quite a bit of reproduction in the realm of 1-2 lbs and more. Have one feeder on it that I run about 7 months per year but works out to 150# every three weeks. Coons get some of course. Have restocked I think twice with fatheads at about 5-10 lbs, twice. I never thought this tank (pond) would do well but cc seem to thrive on the muddy stuff and never a weed problem at all. Anyway I thought I would throw out that fact about channel cats being very hardy and reproducing in tough climes. We have harvested about 75 in 5 years from 3-11 lbs. We have been doing the management recommendations about taking the 17-20 inch fish for food and leaving the larger and smaller ones. The big gal that was 30 inch was released. By the way , the older males are really easy to spot with their dark color and nobby heads. And on a cc that looks good.

Brian Carter, do you have blue cats or channel cats? How big were the tiles you sunk and did you cap off one end? Blues will spawn around brushpiles and under logs or other structure. Channels prefer a hole like a hollow log, undercut river bank or the like.

Hi Ryan:
I did not cap them but I have some that are trapped by rocks, some totally open, and some with wood pallets stacked at one end. So I gave them some choices in hope that I would get some reproducing. And they are Channel Cats, I guess I call them the wrong name, they look like a blue color. I got allnmy fish from jones, in Newtown , ohio. I did not see blue cats listed on their fish list. I think the tiles were 12- 16 in tiles about 4 feet in lenght. I am more of a bass fisherman, but always enjoyed carp and catfishing when I was growing up. Nothing like a campfire and good conversation and some fishing.

It sounds like the tiles are appropriate structure for the channels to reproduce but given the sizes, timeframe, local conditions, and lack of catching fingerlings I would lean toward the smaller ones being slow growers. I would go with Theo's suggestion and do a cross-sectional aging if you want to be sure. Kiser lake, not too far from you, is a 400 acre lake with lots of structure but reproduction is intermitten at best so the DNR restocks channels periodically.

I have many fond memories of nights of catfishing myself.

Ryan:
Well sounds like we have to revisit those days again. I will probably have some guys over on june 16th. The girls at the ctc are playing BINGO