Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking BIG MESS? OR NOT? NEWBIE QUESTION

Hello everyone,
My name is Marco and l just found this site a few days and l've already subscribed to the magazine. All l can say is AWESOME site!!!! l'm from Southern Ontario, Canada and a friend and l bought some land last year with about a 2.5 acre pond on it that's basicly three ponds attached together. The two end ponds average 6 ft with some 10ft holes and the middle one is about 2-3 ft and can almost dry up in drought. Man, is this pond stacked with fish! Don't obviously know exact numbers or if they are growing or breeding but, here goes, Hundreds of Bluegills, decent size for Canada 6-8 inches,Crappie same size as gills but some are 12-14 inches, some perch but small and skinny, about 10 LM bass between 2-4 lbs (alittle skinny) and hundreds of smaller ones. The guy we bought from said there are about 25 walleye 1-3 lbs. and 5 that are 5-7 lbs. We've only caught about 10 of the smaller walleyes last fall (they were alittle skinny but not to bad). We've seen most of these fish swimming around last summer but have only caught a hand full of gills and Crappie ice fishing this winter so far, don't know that's all about. Can't miss in the summer with just about anything you throw at the gills and Crappie. Any suggestions on why we aren't getting fish in the winter? Apparently thousands of mudminnows in there because there is a smaller half acre minnow pond beside the big pond that we take from. Here's are main goal, big perch and decent size walleye (nothing huge just to eat) Is there hope?

Not catching any fish so far this winter while ice fishing? What are you using for bait and how many times have you fished? This sounds suspicious.

How much snow has been laying on the ice and for how long? You could be experiencing oxygen depletion conditions or a winter kill. Your pond is too shallow for best chances of no winterkill in the northern winters. Deeper snow (greater than 6") laying on ice in a relatively shallow pond like you describe for longer than 6 weeks is likely to have oxygen depletion or reduced oxygen conditions. Fish will likely not bite when experiencing low oxygen conditons. The deeper water a pond has the bigger amount of oxygen that it contains and thus the longer it takes to deplete the oxygen under snow cover.

Thanks for the reply, we really want to get something good started. We stopped fishing late last week because we can't catch anything. Your probably right about low oxygen even though we saw only a few dead fish after last year's winter. It's probably been about an average of 3-6" of snow. We had a good rain today and looks like for the next couple of days so it will be gone be tomorrow afternoon. How would l get oxygen in there throughout the winter besides always drilling a few holes and plowing the snow off the pond. Maybe a windmill? Will it produce enough for the fish to become active. Also, what species should l start harvesting and what size.
Please and Thank you

If you can safely plow the snow off the pond that would be the cheapest and quickest way. Clear ice does not reflect very much light, unlike snow. That allows algae to produce oxygen under the ice.

Drilling holes wouldn't help much, and a windmill might be a good option for next year.

as for fish...

I would plan on removing all crappie and bass next spring. How is the perch reproduction? You may want to add christmas trees for perch spawning substrate.
Feeding BG and perch may improve the forage base for the walleye. A walleye eats Bg and YP that are about 1/3 the length of a walleye. So 18" walleye will eat 6" perch and BG. So to grow big walleyes you will want bigger forage.

The reason this is important is that your walleye will probably not successfully spawn in your pond.
And they wont reproduce with crappie or bass. Even too many BG will hurt walleye spawns (50kg BG/ha).
So you will need to buy walleyes to restock your pond. And you will probably want to maximize growth so you get a higher return on your investment.

First, remove bass and crappie, then establish excellent forage base, then stock more walleye (large enough not get eaten immeadiatly).

Ok, l'll see what l can do about thinning the Crappie and Bass. l think the perch are so thinned that there might only be a handful in there. We are going to try an oxygen pump next winter to see if the fish are become more active and better fishing as a result. As far as perch feed, what would you recommend for faster growth. Thanks for the reply.

Yellow perch make excellent walleye forage. One study found that walleye did better with both BG and YP. So you should maximize YP and BG production to get your wae to grow.

But crappie and bass are competing with, if not eating, walleye. WAE and YP will both eat BG.

Basic floating fish food should get at least the BG to eat and grow. A fish feeder will improve the efficiency of feeding your fish, because the fish learn to eat at the same time every day.

walleyeguy, In looking at the specs on your pond I would also consider aeration at times other than winter. You may be at an DO advantage in the shallower portions of the pond if you have some wind that moves the surface.If electricity is not near by and a windmill is being considered look into a system that will produce more than 1.5 CFM, such as the Superior windmill Turbo with a "dual diaphram" If Koenders produces a unit other then the 1.5 cfm by the time you are considering one,I would consider that unit also and both Canadian made.Superior Windmill will have more experience with a "dual diaphram" Koenders to date make a good product in a single diaphram pump but the capacity is too small for your pond.Both companies differ as to the diffusers they use also.Search the threads and posts here to get information on windmills pros and cons so you make the best choice for your pond. Good Luck Ted

Walleyeguy:

Welcome to the site, I'm also from SW Ontario. Where abouts are you? This forum has great info. as you move forward.

Rowly

Walleyeguy:

Ted Lea has a conversion kit that would replace an airstone from the Koender windmill to produce 1800 GPM. I have had a good conversation with him and will be purchasing his product soon, once the ice thaws and the water temperature increases a little bit. I have a dealer for koender in SW Ontario if you are looking. Great windmill....it keeps my ice open in a 20' radius during the coldest of winter for my ducks and geese between my 2 islands near their duck house.

Rowly

Hey walleyeguy, the suggestions on removal of Crappie and LMB are right on the mark. If you want a walleye/Yellow perch/BlueGill pond then cull out all Crappie (for sure), and all Bass. As others have stated they directly compete with both of your desired species.

As mentioned by Bill Cody, you definitely want to look into supplemental aeration... depending on the state of your ponds I would suggest aerating all year, but most certainly in the winter. Personally I prefer electric aeration vs.. windmill. For the mere fact that when I want/need to aerate I want/need to be sure that I can... with electrically powered means I control this... with wind-power I do not. If you decided to go the windmill route I would always suggest some electric back-up method if possible.

Walleyeguy - In regards to your comment of "As far as perch feed, what would you recommend for faster growth". Are you talking about natural or artificial food for y.perch?

Regarding too low of perch densities. Either the perch have low hatching success and or too low of survival of fingerling fish or the predation pressure on young perch is too great and too few survive. If perch you are catching by angling are small and skinny posssibly competition for food items from other similar sized fish is too great; thus slow growth and thin fish.

young of year crappie consume lots of zooplankton, which is neccessary for yoy walleye, perch, bg, and bass. If BG density is realy high it might negatively affect perch growth through direct competition. The perch are definetly competing with the smaller bass. How big are the perch? At some point perch get large enough to prey on small BG, which they are good at, and then they grow pretty fast. Large YP are also very important for successful YP spawns. I would keep all bass, especialy the large ones, and release all YP.

Y.perch will grow good when feeding on small bgill when they are abundant only during times (seasons) when bgill are the optimum size for perch predation. Bgill can quickly grow to sizes not preferred by yellow perch (depending of sizes of the perch predators).

Thanks alot, you guys really know your stuff and l'll definitely keep in touch.

walleyeguy- for better background on working with walleyes in ponds, you ought to purchase the two back issues of Pond Boss magazine that discuss raising walleye in small waters:
1. March-April 2003 issue, "Walleye in a Small Pond Present a Major Challenge by B.Cody

2. January-February 2005 issue, "Walleyes in Northern Ponds" by Dr.D.Willis.

Bill,

Since I have just gotten a chance to get Walleye this weekend for my first fish, I am curious what the problem is. The fishery guy suggested them but it was also what he was selling. Walleye are the most popular fish up here in Minnesnowta. I wasn't even going to get them until he offered. My pond is only 1.2-2 acres depending on snowfall and rain which has been scarce the past three years since I started my pond.

Lew

Lew -- as you know, we are straight west of you. Walleyes are typically not considered a good pond fish, but also as you indicated, they are the "queen" of fishes around here and everyone wants them. We tried really hard to get walleyes going in a few ponds around here. I'll try to summarize my impressions.

In one 22-acre pond, we tried to keep sufficient walleye density to keep yellow perch and bluegill in control. I was disappointed in this pond. The panfish did not overpopulate, but we had VERY slow growth on the walleyes (13-14 inches long at age 5). In fact, I'd say we "stunted" the walleyes through our annual stocking of fall fingerlings (6-8 inches).

In a 17-acre pond, we went with much lower density of walleyes, and didn't worry about what happened to the perch. The walleyes made 18 inches in 3 years. However, there are so few that the pondowner rarely catches any, other than late spring when they are really agressive. They have PLENTY of perch to eat, I guess.

In a 6-acre gravel pit that has largemouth bass, yellow perch, and black crappies, we maintain a low density walleye population by stocking a few adults each year. Those fish are fat and happy, and I consider them a "secondary" fishery. Numbers aren't high, and you couldn't have continual fish fries, but they are plump and a nice bonus fish. This seems to be the best strategy for walleyes. The largemouth bass are a much more effective predator on panfish, so make them the primary predator.

How's that for food for thought??

Dave

Dave Willis:

That's great info, actually. I'm stocking my pond gradually, and have tossed in 3 eyes I've caught over the winter. Not for a primary predator or gamefish, but to provide a bit of variety. Something pretty cool about dragging out a walleye when icefishing for BG! Even if you only catch one once in blue moon, the chance is still there. Probably won't put in more than 10-12 of the things...

Sounds like a good plan, Matt. You Iowa guys have such darn good bluegill fishing, are you sure you even notice the walleyes?? Kidding about the walleyes, of course. However, your bluegills tend to be darn good!