Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Hello all...We have a 16 acre lake...

Hello!

Like many folks, I've been reading on the boards for awhile. I've really enjoyed learning about fish management. Thought I would post about our 16 acre soil conservation reservoir outside of Stephenville, TX. We enjoyed excellent fishing for many years until in dried up in a bad drought in the early 2000s. LMB, catfish and crappie fishing was so good we had to post signs to try and keep people from sneaking in. Several trophy bass caught.

We have stocked it a little, but it needs help. I won't go into detail in this post, but I do have one question. I have been reading about how some of you harvest your small bass. Do any of you help stock others property? I would be more than happy to pay someone or buy someone dinner for a few small LMB to put in our lake! If anyone is within a couple hours of Stephenville and would like to help out in exchange to have access to our lake once its fishable let me know!

Thanks!

Luke

We have things to similar that Luke. Actually we had a pond full of small LMB 4-8" numerous ones but I think we lost all of them with a fish kill during the drought. Not quite sure. Trying to figure it out for sure.

We are just way behind on the # of fish we need in it. We put flathead minnows, bluegill and CC (100 fingerling CC and about 30 adults) about 5-6 years ago. Followed the next year with about 15 adult, 100 fingerling florida bass and 100 blue catfish. Unfortunately green sunfish must of washed in when it filled back up, because its filled with them. I know we haven't stocked it enough, but we actually live in Fort Worth and the land is in Stephenville. We tried fishing in a couple of times for CC and bass with no luck at all. Going to go ahead and take the plunge and purchase more fish soon.

Honestly a 16 acre lake is gonna take dedication and hardcore management to get back to what it was. And most of all it's gonna take $$$$$. Bucket stocking a few lmb here and there I don't think will fix your problem.. You're best bet might even be better to start over.. But you're gonna need some serious fish stocked to establish a corrected balance..

Depending on the size of the Blues, they could have eaten a number of your fingerling LMB.......

Luke, what is the current fish status? It sounds like you have green sunfish and maybe, but not sure, some bass and cats.

Has there been any other stockings since the cats went in?

How did it do last year in the drought?

Has it refilled since last year? In other words, is it at full pool of 16 acres?

What is the ponds purpose? Livestock watering, recreation, etc.

How is the water quality?

What are your goals for this body of water??

Esshup, it seems unlikely we would of lost all of the LMB. The blues were fingerling and the LMB were 4-6 inches. The 15-20 adult LMB we stocked were 10 inches plus.

Dave, we were lucky this year. That area had a couple of heavy rains that brought alot of runoff. Also when it dried up we had it dug out a little and brought in alot of drillers mud. The lake is completely full.

We have a small cabin on it that the family uses for some holiday weekends. We use a jet ski 2-3 times a year. We have about 30 head of cows. I'm not sure how to evaluate the quality of water. It has never had what I would call clear water, but that never seemed to be an issue in the past in terms of fish production. Alot of the lake has a red clay like mud for the bottom. The 16 acres is a conservative estimate. The county has always told us 22 acres, but it just doesn't measure that. I am assuming they are including the spillway and some of the surrounding land.

The green sunfish were in the water before we stocked fish. The lake is fed by a creek when it rains hard enough, so they washed in. It currently has green sunfish, bluegill, CC, BC and LMB. The BG, CC and minnows were stocked 6 years ago. The LMB and BC a year later. My father did the stocking so I don't have specific records or dates. The GSF are in there thick, but the bluegill are abundant as well. We have seined and fished a little. No CC, BC or LMB have been seen. We need to fish it harder to be certain.

If money were not an issue, what would you recommend we do now? We don't have specific goals. Just a nice quality body of water for fishing and eating.

Now I understand the stocking rates/sizes. I thought it was the other way around, with the catfish larger than the LMB.

To resolve the size question, go to http://acme.com/planimeter/ and measure it.

I'd contact someone with an electro shock boat to do a survey of the fish population and go with their recommendations. I don't know where in Texas you are (N,S,E,W)

Esshup, they are southwest of Dallas-Fort Worth.

Wow! Using that website I'm getting about 14 acres. We always assumed it was bigger than that. Well that brings the stocking price per acre down at least!

That happens to alot of people.. Your lake is still huge.. If moneys not an issue get a full lake analysis done by a biologist or reputable lake management firm.. Try will shock and survey every aspect of the lake and tell you how to move forward the most efficiently.. Maybe Greg Grimes or Bob lusk can give you some names to contact also the pondboss magazine might have some leads for you.. With a lake that big it's just hard to do on your own..

Well unfortunatly money IS an issue. I just wanted to know what could be done. I know you guys will hate to hear this but we will probably just keep stocking it and hope for the best the next couple of years.

I realizse that you gotta do what you can afford.

But...

If things get really outta whack, then it will be even more $$ out of pocket to fix.

I'd call Lusk, Grimes, Overtons, Shawn Banks, etc. to get prices on having a survey and a stocking recommendation done. That way, you know you are on the right track.

Luke, I just PMed you.

Luke, fish it and keep a log. After awhile you'll have a pretty good idea of the status. It sounds like you have a pretty good BG/GSF forage base so don't sweat that. I would stock about 25 6 to 10 inch bass per acre. Bite the $ bullet and stock them all at once. They will turn into footballs in a couple of years. Sounds like it would also work as a HSB place.

If buying LMB in a hatchery is too expensive to you, have you ever thought about catching these fish by yourself? You could think about a fishing event in some public lake to collect LMB. If you take your family or friends then probably some amount of fish could be caught and it would be better than nothing.
Sure, it takes time...

If you go out and fish your lake 3 times for at least an hour each time using either a mepps spinner or a twister tail roadrunner and you dont catch any small bass, than basically to sum up Dave's post, get yourself 250 LMB 6-10 inches long and expect to pay between $3 and $4 each for them. Your looking at $1000 and those fish will grow very rapidly.

Now if you want help with this project and are willing to lease access to your lake there is a company called private water fishing who advertises with Pond Boss. They will help fix up your lake and turn it into a trophy fishery, but in return their members have fishing rights. Sounds like these guys would be a perfect fit for you. Their website is privatewaterfishing.com Contact Steve Alexander.

Just saw there were more responses to this post. Thanks guys. We actually spent a weekend recently catching 8-12 inch LMB from a friends pond. We have put 25 in so far, to go along with what we have stocked in years past. There are a couple of neighbors willing to help us out, so we are lucky in that regards.

I would guess the LMB and CC have spawned once or twice the past years in the lake. It just doesn't get fished often because I live 80 miles away. The couple of weekends we tryed, the water looked like chocolate milk from the rains so that could of affected their feeding. We tryed minnows and lures. Gonna keep fishing it this summer when I get the chance. Should be fun.