Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Newbie from S/W Ga

Hello from S/W Ga. I'll be lurking for a couple of days, so to learn more about ponds and will ask a few questions without doubt. I stumbled onto this forum looking for answers to a golden shiner infestation and how to rid my pond of these things. :-) Thank you, Randy

Welcome to the forum. I'm no expert but if you want to get rid of golden shiners why don't you just stock a few lmb?

What problems are you having with your golden shiner population and what other species are present?

Trying to make a long story short,3 years ago I had a fish kill off, due to water meal. 2 years ago I spent quite a few bucks reviving my water quality level and restocked my pond with Ga hybrid bream, crappie and minnows. BTW, this is a 1 acre pond. Last spring just before I was going to stock my pond with LMB, I had a crop duster spray my pond and kill the majority of my fish. I did not restock afterwards, because I had, had it with ponds and the cost factor of trying to raise fish to eat and pleasure myself with fishing. This year I had noticed all kinds of minnows and fingerlings, (so I thought) my interest level picked up. Well come to find out today, when I went to tease the fish with some crickets. Just about all my fish were shiners. I used these things as Norhtern pike bait when I lived up north.
My concern, if I were to stock LMB. How long would I have to wait before I would have any kinda resemblance of order in the pond? I'm not getting any younger and my limited funding is gone after I rehabbed it. I'm getting these things from water runoff after all the rain we've had down here this year, probably the same pond that I got the water meal a few years back.
I'm rambling so will be done.
Thank-you

Icedad, you are finding out the hard way, that if you want to pleasure yourself with fishing, you need to carry yourself to the lake. A pond can reject you in more ways then a beauty queen. You can spend all kinds of money, feed them, then when it is time to reap the rewards,nada. After a while you just have a type of phone rant with other jilted suitors on a forum. Your rambling will fit right in. Welcome and good luck.

Ken, not so. I wish I had a problem like icedad. Having too much forage is a good thing in my book.

icedad, give Greg Grimes a call. http://lakework.com/

He can get your pond turned around in no time. Stocking some LMB (Largemouth Bass) with that many shiners in the pond will allow you to grow some large LMB very quickly. I forget what Greg has grown LMB size wise, but I'm thinking it was over 2# in a year. The Crappie are not recommended in a pond less than 25 acres or so. They take some management, and it's more work than what people realize to keep their numbers in check during their boom spawning years. You'll probably need to stock some Bluegills too, but Greg should make the final decision. He's really good at what he does. Give him a call.

Ask Greg about Hybrid Stripers.

Even better!!!

Hybrid stripers are infertile. Thats what I was told by Kens fish farm in Alapaha Ga. http://www.kens-fishfarm.com/ This whre I bought all my fish and they fixed my pond, with their expertise. Bream down here are Bluegill up there. Same thing. How many LMB do you think I need? 1 acre pond with 2 down trees leaning into the water for cover. 14 ft at it's deepest 1-3 ft at it's shallowest, with some cover.
I can't tell you what the ratio of gills to crappie because of so many shiners in the pond and because of the cropduster's killoff. I was going to put bass in the pond next weekend, but didn't know I needed so many. My concern before was keeping the bream population controlled, per Kens Fish Farm. Now it's the dam shiners.
So, how many baby bass and how many bigger boys should I stock? I'm thinking hundred total, too much? Crossing my fingers and hoping someone can wave a magic wand and fix all my problems.... lol

Randy -:)

Here we go

I’ll take all those shiners; usually the biggest issue with small ponds is having enough food for your predators. Most people spend a lot of effort to get the forage base up before stocking bass etc. Seems you have a good situation, lots of food, now just stock your bass and try to not let them over populate and eat "ALL" the shiners.

If you were closer to me I literally would offer to come over, seine them out and take them if you have that many.

Esshup, I could have sworn that you were going on how your bride had lost her youthful figure. Did I misunderstand? Usually our loved ones gain weight but posted a picture of your sweetie last night and she looked like the saline water was leaking somewhere. Could my eyes be fooling me? Icedad, could you tell us more about the fine people who helped you, what did they did and a ballpark range of their charges. I have never heard of them(grew up in Ky.) and would like to advance my learning. Thank you!

Kenc, I have no idea what you're talking about.

Randy, it's not as easy as just dropping bass in the pond.You could end up with more problems that are harder to control than an overpopulation of GS. LMB will tend to overpopulate in a smaller pond without constant harvest, that's why HSB were suggested. It's easy to regulate the number of top of the line predators that way.

Randy, what are your goals for your pond? Do you want to catch 1#+ BG and small, 16" or less LMB, smaller BG but an occasional 5# LMB, or something other than those 2 things? It's hard to recommend something without knowing what the pond owner's goals are. We might just recommend you doing something that is totally opposite what your vision for your pond is.

Scott, you didn't post a picture of your pond showing that it had dropped 50 in. since you married her?

Kenc, now I understand!

Yeah, it's here:
highs and lows

But, I was married to her before that:
Renovation

Scott,both of my ponds are dug pits like yours. One of mine is full and the other one is 3 ft. low but they are within a few hundred yards of each other. Most brides gain weight but these pits shed water easily. Did you ever listen to Earl Pitts? Here is one of his: Inside every skinny woman is a fat woman waiting to get married.

My goal is still the same about my pond as it was 2 years ago. i originally stocked my pond after the fish kill off by watermeal with 500 Ga. hybrid bream, 200 hundred hybrid crappie, 6 grass carp, and 2000 something or another minnows. I had a professional come out and take care of the water quality with chemicals and listened to his recommendations and etc. I had full intentions of adding the LMB (to keep the bream population in control) last spring until the crop duster came and wiped out the majority of my fish last year.
All I want to do now is get rid of these shiners, cause I can't even feed the bream and crappie that are left cause the darn shiners are pigs. lol
All I want out of this pond is a place to relax, fish, enjoy life, eat some "clean" fish, other than Chinese or Viet Nam store bought chit once in awhile. If I were to have an overabundance of LMB, I'd love to catch and eat them too and I'm sure my son and neighbors wouldn't mind doing a little fishing.
At this point, I'm not going to spend another 3 grand to fix up this pond. I'll buy some LM, and cross my fingers. Oh BTW, I do have the pond aerated.
Esshup, what you said is about what I'd like. A place where the grandkids can have "fun" fishing and I could tease some gills and etc. Crappie are my favorite eating fish.

LMB like to eat shiners, I would say shiners are a good thing if you intentd to stock LMB. why would you want to get rid of them before adding LMB, thats what they will eat. If you realy want the shiners gone over stock with LMB, once they have eaten them all you can then start culling and eating the LMB your self. Crappie eat small shiners too..

What was wrong with your pond? I am curious as to what chemicals they used. If you stock the LMB,they will thin the shiners pronto.

so far so good...

Icedad-
Don't be discouraged, it sounds as if you have an excellent established forage base-with just a little work, you have the potential to have a great pond.

Ken's is very well known to this forum. Their recommendation for a pond to be stocked with HBG, Crappie, and minnows is not exactly a standard stocking plan for establishing a forage base.
With some regular BG, followed by LMB, you might easily be able to have a pond that would meet all your needs-without spending a bazillion dollars. See if someone like Greg might be making a swing though your part of the state sometime, and could combine your delivery with some others.

Ditto what others have said, don't "get rid of" the shiners. Use them for food for the predators that you stock. You probably have many $100 worth of shiners in there, put them to use growing your predators.

LMB will eat them, but LMB will be harder to manage down the road.

HSB will also eat them, and will also eat pellets. They will be easier to manage down the road. They fight harder than LMB too. I know of a pond that has both LMB, HSB, BG and RES in it. The BG are pushing a pound, LMB are pushing 3# and the HSB are around 4#. The pond is managed for large BG, and the owner has to spend more time at the pond now fishing out the larger LMB.

If it was my pond and had your problem, I would stock some 10"-12" HSB first, and if they aren't controlling the Shiners in a year, stock some single sex Female LMB next Spring when you can sex them. But, if it was my pond I wouldn't have stocked Crappie in the first place, so your goals and mine diverge.

What I'm trying to say is that we can give you recommendations on what to do, but it's much better to get a hands on recommendation from someone that is good at what they do.

Hello all i am new here...