Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Show off your catch Catch and release your giants

I was totally with you about eradicating our pond when we bought it May 1 of this year, I fished it for 30 days before closing and caught a few small, stunted fish. I really didn’t think much was in there, the plan was similar to what you are doing, let’s add a bunch of forage, add some LMB and watch them grow. In 3-5 years I will have a good fishery. I had spent a month reading on the internet, getting a plan together, had my fish sourced and was within 3 days of spending upwards of $8000.00 on fish when I got a call from Bob telling me to get in touch with a local fish biologist. That guy was at my doorstep 3 hours after closing and gave me some options. The pond is 5 acres, at the time it was 1-3’ deep and I thought nothing was in it.
After weighing my options I decided to start over, which is basically what you’re doing without getting rid of what’s already in there and man am I glad I did. As you can see in the photos, this is what was in the pond.
Not saying to go this route as I’m only 8 months into pond ownership but you may be surprised how many fish you actually may already have in there.
Start over fresh or start over with the unknown and try to money whip it.

Granted you probably don’t have Carp in the pond or the catfish which was creating an additional problem in my case
Approximately 6000 lbs of fish in a pond that I thought was almost empty
There were a few giant bass and a couple very large crappie but you have to ask yourself is it better to have a couple or a majority

Your situation interests me because I had the same thoughts and ideas in my head as you currently have

Another thought, electro fish it if you can. I don’t know the in’s and out’s of the process or if they can get a boat on your water but if 500 stunted bass pop up with very little forage then you know you’re fighting a battle you will never win.
You mentioned in another video that you neglected the pond for 10 years and wish you would have done something sooner, I’m sure you would hate to go another 5 and make no headway.

One of my goals when seeking out a property was to have a pond so my family and I could fish because we all love fishing. Even though that plan has been put on hold a few years while fish grow, we have gotten as much or more enjoyment out of managing it and seeing the changes as we would fishing it. We know exactly to the fish what is in there, what it does, what its job is, why it was stocked.
No guessing games,
The science behind this whole deal is very intriguing and it’s so much more than put fish in water and hope they get big.
End of the day a body of water can only hold so many pounds of fish. Do you want 1000 fish 1 pound or 100 fish 10 pounds ? We opted for the latter of the 2 options

My comment about 'tossing the fish back in the water' was not about whether the bass should be released back into the pond.

I meant actually physically tossing/throwing it back in vs. gently placing it back in the water and moving water over it's gills when you are resuscitating a fish after catching it.

I don't understand the mentality of posting on a public forum, then attacking folks who are trying to help you.

There's no single right answer to 99% of the questions that are asked here. The only answer that is always right is "it depends".

George Carlin said "Consider how dumb the average person can be. Then realize that half of the population is dumber than that."

Well said Theo

3.94 GPA through 2 years of undergrad and 4 years of pharmacy school at UNC Chapel Hill
Multiple people and advisers urging me to go to med school or major in something more substantial
Valedictorian of a 3A high school

Can post proof if you want.

Not the most impressive resume, but dare I say a little sharper than the average person, eh?

I've known some 4.0 gpa people that were dumb as a box of rocks and had no people skills on top of it.

The valedictorian of my hgh school class, when in drivers ed with him, was asked (with the car running and the hood open) "Your car is overheating, where would you put the hose to cool the engine down before shutting it off?" He pointed to the air intake hole on the air cleaner.......

As for people skills, well, lets not go there.

We aren’t talking about pharmaceuticals and med school here, this forum is about ponds and fish
You are either hear to learn or gloat 🤷🏼‍♂️
I personally feel that you have a lot to learn, not necessarily about catching fish but growing fish

I'm here to learn and have fun. I just found some of the replies to be annoying. I don't care about people skills, obviously. So, I'll be more subdued, post less, and just try to glean some nuggets of wisdom from an occasionally boring forum.

I have been slapped by better bitches than you.

It almost sounds like you are not getting the answers you are looking for thus becoming frustrated.
I do not believe everything I read but there are many years for wisdom from people on this forum, Some of which have seen every situation you can think of.
Lets be level headed for a second, use some common since and do some simple math.
You have stocked FHM, shiners and an abundance of crawfish along with some F1's.
We can assume you already have quite a few fish in your pond, Lets use a round number of 100 undersized LMB.
You stocked maybe 20 pounds of Minnows and 20 pounds of shiners, it takes 10 pounds of fish to grow each bass 1 pound
First off those F1's and forage more than likely lasted a few weeks before being consumed. They never had a chance to grow or reproduce.
In effect you grew each fish in your pond 6 oz and are back a square 1.
Even if a few did make it and were able to spawn, they were all quickly consumed.
If you were able to give all of your forage even 6 months to reproduce then you may be okay. That can never happen with an abundance of predators already established
Since your end goal is to mate your Large Female Northern with an F1 male you just put stocked. First off one of those males has to not get eaten, 2nd one of those F1's has
to become mature enough to spawn. 3rd that Northern has to live long enough to mate up with a mature Male F1. 4th some of those babies need to mature enough to be fun to catch.
The odds are stacked against you and you are looking at 10 years for that to happen.

End of the day, you don't go to a restaurant and tell them how to cook, you don't go to the mechanic and tell them how to fix your car. Why would you get on a pond management forum and not seek they advice ?

I get it. Uphill battle. You left out the fact that I have started harvesting some bass, and plan on fertilization or looking at water quality to increase nutrients. I'm not frustrated, and don't mmecessarily expect to have a ton of success. This, inefficient process of mostly spinning my wheels is fun for me. I don't want to eradicate and start over. You guys are taking this much more seriously than I am.

The fhm will not last long at all, I know that. They were to hopefully feed a few f1's if any of the f1's made it this far.

Tennessee dnr stocked f1's in existing bass lakes, and it seems to have helped. NC and VA are doing the same. I stocked my little body of water at a much higher concentration, and harvested bass (not enough) before I did so.

If it doesn't work, I'm fine with it.

Don't eradicate it then, Electrofish it and see what you have then draw up a more logical game plan.
You don't know what you can't see. You may be very surprised what is actually in that small body of water. I would also think that you would get some fun out of being
able to see what you really have. I know in my case it was a shock and eye opener to see what was underneath the waters surface.
I would bet your Predator base is much greater per acre than the lakes in NC, TN and VA that you speak of. I would also guess that the forage base in those lakes
is much greater than yours.
Stocking a pond where the fish are starving is much different than stocking a lake where the fish are content.

I know nothing about fertilizing because my pond is so nutrient rich that I don't need it. (maybe to much so) but don't you do that to help out the base of the food chain
for the forage to grow ? Assuming you are lacking forage than what is the purpose ?

From what I have read this is like dumping money into a slot machine where there is no payout.

Might do thar next year.

Forage base - yes, probably much less
Predator concentration- doubt it's as great as Lake Norman.

One last though, Have you thought about supplemental feeding to take the pressure off of the forage you do have ?

Yes. I was going to look into that in the next couple of months. When is the time to attempt that? Early spring?

I'm still new to this but here in Kansas we will start somewhere around late April.
I know there is a magic water temperature number that you are looking for but I don't know if it is 60* or 65* something in that area.
I also know to quit feeding in fall when the water temperature drops below that number.
I have come to realize that everything I speak with my pond management guys about is more in weight and temperatures, Not as much
about numbers and times of the year.
I.E. - In your case. You have taken out X number of fish, Is that 20lbs. or 50lbs. Same thing with the Calendar. Weather conditions are different all over the USA
It will also take a couple of weeks until you notice the fish feeding, Do it in the same place at the same time of day, every day

I couldn't understand one thing the OP was saying he sounded like Boomhauer from King of the Hill.......................

... Dang ole dang ole.

Yeah, doesn't bother me in the least

Just saw this. Others are trying it (sure some promoting it are getting paid, but still....)
If it works, it works. If not, no biggie.

https://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/stocking-small-bass.html

There is some further excellent reading in this.. For example, Eric West has a great article on stocking bass of a larger size which has some principles that apply to many other aspects of this. Carrying capacity, forage availability and the one factor that I find in my experience, controls even more- Environmental factors-we can't manipulate this like we can other aspects.