Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction New member, old pond

I recently purchased some property in Clay County Indiana with a 1 1/4 acre pond surrounded by woods. 15% of the BOW has average depth of 4 feet, the remainder has average depths of 15 feet with some depths of 19 plus. I have water clarity of 8 feet. It was an old coal strip pit that's 60 plus years old.

Is is stocked with RES, BG and LMB which I have caught during the first 40 hours of fishing. I was told there was also CC but haven't caught any yet.Looking to stock with YP, and a few walleye. The larges LMB is 13 inches and healthy looking but I'm not interested in keeping those. As I catch them I am donating to my neighbors BG over populated pond! RES are 11 plus inches and BG's 10 plus inches. Most all catches are keepers.

Any chance with aeration of trout surviving year round? Thanks for any suggestion!
Zeke

Sorry guys starting to realize previous post should have been in another fourm anyway I am really enjoying this forum since I found it I haven't been able to get off of it zeke

No problem zeke5, glad to have ya!!!

First off, I would say slow down and hold off in removing those LMB until the pros can help you with a long term plan for the pond. Those LMB may be what's keeping everything in balance in regards to the other fish in the pond. Sounds like you have a pond that leans towards a nice BG pond.

What do you want back from the pond? ( oops-- I see that you want YP, WE) Overall good fishing? Big Bluegill? Big LMB? Other? When you let the guys here know more of your specific goals, the better they can help you.

Trout can usually be added in the fall and harvested by the following spring. It's near impossible to keep them year round, unless you have cold water during the summer.

oops-- I now noticed that you want YP, WE
The pros will guide you the right way. Perhaps starting over?

Welcome to PB, Zeke5. Looks like we're neighbors. (Owen County)

Hey Zeke, welcome and don't worry about not being able to get off the site, it's quite addictive. It has replaced my morning local paper. I'm no expert but had the same interest in YP and WE as you and have been guided by two of the best (you know who you are CB1 & BC) and can tell you having LMB and YP flourish in a pond is at best difficult. Seems that eliminating the LMB by fishing is near impossible. I agree with Fish n Chips that the LMB are the reason for the nice BG and RE. You will get more and better input shortly. Good luck, Bob-O PS your good fortune to be close to Sparkplug

Sorry guys, I ain't real sharp with puter.
Bob - I deleted your duplicate post. - Cody

zeke5 - Many would love to have a pond with large RES and big BG. You are fortunate in that regard. Balance is good for big panfish. It seems we are never satisfied. You can add some WE and YP, but IMO they will have to be larger individuals and considered as put and take bonus fish. I doubt you will get much reproduction that grow to adult size from the YP and almost no chance for walleye recruitment with LMB at the current crowded population.

Walleye inch for inch will be more slender bodied (fusiform) compared to yellow perch of the same length. Thus for optimum survival of stockers for the YP, they should be at least 7" and better 8". A 13" LMB has a mouth width of 50-52mm (2.0"). Body depth/height of YP at 7" is 40mm (1.5") and 8" is 44mm (1.57"); thus a 12" LMB can eat a 7" and 8" perch. Your 4"-6" YP stockers will surly be mostly bass food. Some could survive if submerged weeds as weed beds are common in the pond. I don't have similar specific body depth info for walleye but I do know they have noticeably narrow bodies when less than 12" long, especially the common stocker walleye available in fall; the 5"-7" individuals are basically cigars and without good cover, are easy food for 12"-13" bass. It is risky and pricy business with low survival rates for stocking YP and WE at 4"-6" long in your pond. I suggest if you want good success stock only the larger individuals.

Thanks Bill

At least I'm not the only one that doesn't know how to run a puter. Thanks everyone for the thoughts and opinions. I will post more tonight of what I know of the bow but I have only owned it for 3 months. THANKS. Ps and I'll try to get it in the right forum

If you move the info and questions to another forum heading please link this initial thread to the new thread.

Sorry I guess I'll leave it here because I'd have no clue how to make a link!

In the 40 ish ocumulitive hours of me and three other people fishing since I've owned The Pond the largest bass that was caught was 13". I have fished periodically just for bass with out much luck. The previous owner said he caught 6 pounders but that was 15 years ago. The res, bg fishing is great I have caught a couple green sunfish, but nice size so probably not true gsf.

The water is very clear by my standards with a guessed visibility of 8 ft . However if you walk in there is 8 inches of muck which I believe is mostly decaying leaves. Most places around the pond you can't walk in because it drops almost straight off. There are only a few spots you can fish from shore currently which i have only done once. That will change . But currently the whole pond is surrounded by mature trees and poison ivy which loves me. To bad the feelings aren't mutual.

In a perfect world I would have res, bg, yp, and we. But after reading what youve had to say what is the best way to tell or eastimate what my lmb numbers are so I can reduce their population and start moving towards yp and we. I do have a local source for mature walley if i can catch a couple here and there.

Well any other suggestions would be great really appreciate it guys

Zeke, don't need ta worry about this not being in the "correct" forum as probably no one else will. Bill suggested adding this link to a new one if posted means if you post in another forum that a lot of those reading the new one may not have the info already posted. I mentioned before that I believe that just fishing will not eliminate the LMB, I hope some more opinions are given as I'm no expert but would like to hear what would be a practical approach. Putting in some adult WE surely can't hurt but probably won't result in establishing a growing population of them. That being said, if you put in say 20 12-15"ers they should be able to grow nicely and provide for some occasional excitement.

The thread is okay where it is as long as you remember where to find it to update us on the progress of your pond. If you are interested in how to create a link, this is how. Move to and look at the top of your screen for the http:// (called: browser address). Left click on it and this should make it colored usually blue. Then right click on it and then a small window will show up. With the mouse point to Copy and right click on Copy which will copy or sort of store it "in your mouse". Then go to where you are typing the new thread and right click the mouse which show a small window with Paste. Left click on Paste and it will put the copied material where you are typing or where the small line or cursor is flashing. This puts everything that was highlighted blue into where the cursor was flashing. You can erase it by just backspacing over it. Try it is fun.

Back to your questions. If you can find the larger stockers of YP and/or WE, I would add them and then remove two maybe three bass for every new fish stocked. It is often best to have the bass removed prior to adding new adult fish. Try that and see how well it works. Be very careful when moving the fish you catch fishing somewhere else. Don't move very many (only 1-3) at a time due to the stress involved in transferring and handling larger fish. Use plenty of water (Lots) to hold and move the fish. Keeping them as low stress as possible is VERY important for their later survival. Many fish die after swimming away. Their slime coat is their immune system and handling makes the fish very susceptible to fungus and numerous other infections. Just because a fish swims away does not mean it survived for 2-3 wks or longer. Most stressed fish never surface/float when they die. Transferred fish have to resume eating quickly to recover from transfer handling & moving which are usually very stressful for larger fish. Adding larger fish into a crowded pond with other established predators is often very hard for the newbees to compete for food. Technically moving live sportfish out of public water is often not legal in many places so be cautious.