Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations 6 acre pond problems

I recently voluntered managing a 6 acre pond for a family that at 1 time was just a swimming hole for just the family. They also have a 1 acre and a 3/4 acre with the same fish as below but no problems lots of biggens and a few small ones. They do not want to work with the 5 acre pond they want somebody else to do it and just fish! The pond was built in 1955 and just used for swimming and in 1975 they finally started stocking it with fish and fishing it very little. Over the years they stocked it with,(FH,BC,BG,LMB,a few large CC).

The BG are all big 8-12" and I cannot catch a small 1 ever, I see schools as large as my truck and sometimes there is 3 schools moving around the pond at the same time feeding on the top in the summer (what there young?). The BC are all between 9-14 and i caught 1 that was 7" out of about 100 I iced last winter. I also caught about 600BG and it did not look like I made a differance. The bass are very thin like a trout mostly 10-15 inch, there is very many LMB and BG. The BC are not near as many as the BG and LMB.

I am concerned because I see no small fish ever, I think there eating everything in the pond when they hatch. In the summer the pond looks like an elephant walked around the pond a few hundred times with all the spawning beds. I dived down in the pond last summer and hardly seen any structure in the pond. Would lots of structure for the fish to hide help? also how about netting some of the schools of big ones out? Dynamite?:)

Oh ya and yes i do have permission to keep everything till we get this pond turing up swall fish for down the road keepers.

Iceman

I am by no means an expert and you are reading only my opinion here... If you are catching 8-12 inch BG and there are tons of them in there I would be tempted to keep it "as is" and let it be a trophy BG lake. If you are managing for LMB then stay tuned - lots of suggestions likely to follow from those who know.

Iceman....my dad's pond was much the same as yours when i first started on this forum. Other events have occured since that have changed that landscape, but...I would say start taking out the stunted LMB and the huge BG. It will open some space for smaller BG to thrive, and allow some of the LMB to grow to size enough to eat the larger BG.

Or, you could do like my dad's neighbor did...and throw in a ridonkulous amount of northern pike, and have a completely different issue to manage with all of its own problems, each of them so severe that small LMB are the least of your worries. Oh, wait...don't do that.

What you should do, though, is hang on for the experts to throw down the gauntlet and tell you what's what.

on another note, what kind of structure/habitat is there in the pond? how clear is your water?

do you have goals you know you would like to achieve? Would you rather have a fast-catch pond where you can spend a whole day pulling out fish, and not be worried about their size? would you like trophy bass? Once you know what your goals are, you'll have a better idea of how to manage your pond. That was a hard lesson that the pros on this forum taught me....In my case, my goals were much different than the goals of the rest of the neighbors around the pond, so i had to adjust what i thought was a great idea to fit their plans.

Captain might be right...you might just want to let it ride and have one heck of a bluegill pond.

And just like captain, i am in no means an expert, so please follow someone else's advice before you follow mine.

best of luck, bud.

The pond is very clear with a green cast to it, and there is very little structure anyplace. We fish it for the BG and BC, the bass are only in there to control the BG but have not done there job very well. The concern is that there are no little fish and the bigger ones are eating everything. No NP, would walley help? Maybe every year stock a few hundred 3-4 inch BG and BC?

Iceman

Iceman, it sounds to me that the LMB have in fact done their job very well. As in, that's the main reason you are seeing so many 8-12" BG.
Your bass are skinny because of lack of forage, (small BG), and that's also the reason you have the big BG that you do.

If you're after big BG, you're off to a good start.

Agreed....much to captain's point above, if the pond's intent is to have large BG....then you are all good, buddy.

furthermore, i wish they made sarcasm html tags. please, don't go the NP route. It hurts. badly. There are all sorts of issues in that pond now, low BG populations, crappie going crazy, our old, skinny lmb being found floating nearly bitten in half or with big, toothy wounds. although it is fun to throw buzzbaits over weed beds in the spring, and some of our bass certainly got bigger, I would not recommend the NP route. I actually think it is this year that we will find out if they have been spawning. ugh. However, the neighbor did overstock the NP in our pond by about 10x the recommended amount for the acerage, so some of these problems come from his flub, not from the actual species of NP.

now that i have said all of this, i fully expect an expert to come tell you who wrong i am about everything. It's what usually happens to me and why i love this place as much as i do.

What you are describing is what a pond should look like if you are managing it for large BG. The BC in there are a hit and miss proposition for their boom or bust spawning.

I'd take out some of the LMB 14" or less, but if you are wanting to keep it as a BG/BC pond, the best thing that you can do is install a good quality fish feeder and feed Purina Game Fish Chow or AquaMax 500 or 600. You will feed the BG, which in turn will produce more YOY, due to better body condition.

With all the LMB in there, you'd just be feeding the LMB if you stock small BG in there. I doubt that 10% of the stockers would survive, unless you stocked 5"-6" fish.

I am not an expert; but I'd just enjoy it as is! Maybe remove some thin lmb and maybe add a variety of structure / cover to improve survival of young; but you have what many aspire to achieve.

I'd also go easy on harvesting bluegill and keep all crappie or catfish I caught; but I'm still just learning yet too

I would also leave it as a bluegill crappie pond.

It would be interesting to target the cats in there and what they are doing.

If you do have a dozen or so 20 pound cats, taking them out will make room for a lot more other fish.

Walleye may be a good option for a put and take species to act just like your skinny bass, but probly would not thrive in current conditions.

As stated above it's all about your goals. Start there and we can give you a road map to reach them. I tend to agree with the advice provided above. Keep what you have and manage to get just a little better balance.