Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations how to avoid expensive snack?

I would like to add to my 7.5 acre VA lake:
1. a few florida's and f-1's to improve my lmb genetic potential,
2. a few smallies for variety,
3. and a few wipers, also for variety.
Here's the rub. I don't want them to become an expensive snack for my hungry lmb population. With-in 500 miles of my home, I can find only fingerling sizes of each of these fish. I don't have another pond to raise them to a size sufficient to add them to my lake without them getting eaten. Does anyone have any ideas, or had any success cage raising any of these? Can i keep them supplied with fatheads and pellets? Any other ideas? -jb

Absolutely, although some species do better in cages than others. For me largemouths that are pellet trained did quite well in a floating cage, and went from 4 to 6 inches to a good 9 to 12 in a few months. However they obviously were slightly bigger than fingerlings. I got smallmouths one year and they went off the feed in the cage, but when liberated the following spring they went back on the pellets.

The wipers should do well in a cage too as there are farmers raising them in cages for food fish.

I would make your cages fairly large -- mine are 7 by 7 by about 4 feet deep -- and use as large a mesh size as possible to reduce clogging. I made mine square cages and use 1 1/2 inch PVC with three way connecters at the joints. Basically a cube with the plastic mesh attached with plastic lock ties. You can buy everything you need at most Aquaculture catalogs as in Stoney Creek and Aquatic Ecosystems.

I used to do this every year adding a new age class of largemouths to keep them from being eaten at first.

The downside mainly is the cages can get clogged with algae if your pond is fertile, and I used to clean them with a push broom. It was a real pain and probably stressed the fish a little. I suppose you could rig up a pump and use it as a vacuum to remove the algae.

Make sure there is good circulation around your cage and if possible attach them to a pier where you can easily feed them.

My cages are now fish structure as I can now grow out smaller fish in a 25 by 30 pit with an aerator.

great info. thanks cecil!

I sold some 6-7 inch and will be selling 8-10 inch fed trained F1 bass from American SPortfish in about a month. I'm not sure of your source for hybrids but got all any hatcheries around GA had on Fri. So you may want to get them soon if you want the fingerling "wipers" this year. The cages would be an ption if you already have a dock, if not then I would look at cost/time issues in doing this versus buying large sizes for you pond. American Sportfish can bring you some 8-10 F1's I'm sure. How much it will cost I'm not sure.

wanted to post an update. on july 3rd, exactly 4 weeks ago, i put 75 wipers and 20 pellet trained lmb into a 5x5x10 cage. the wipers have grown from 5 inches to 8 inches and now weigh 5-6 oz. the lmb have grown from 6-7 inches to 8-10 inches. i am amazed at the growth rate in just 4 weeks. all are now large enough to avoid predation as i release them into my lake. btw, i only lost 3 wipers and 1 bass; and those were during the first few days they were in the cage. i will definently be cage raising these fish again. it saved me quite a few $$, was easy and fun. cecil and greg, thanks again for the help. -jb

I was just curious. instead of cages, why can't you find a "bay" in your pond with good depth and perhaps "rope" it off with a large siene or maybe even a silt screen of some type. I was thinking about doing this to get the minnow population up in my pond? any thoughts or experiences with this idea?

I have tried that twice and I don't think I'll try it again. The hard part is keeping other fish out. We were sure that when we were sectioning off the area that we had scared away any other fish but later found out that it was absoulutly full of small bluegil that ate ate every single minnow fry. In 5 months of warm weather not one succsessful minnow spawn due to a ton of hungry little bluegill. I don't know how well minnows would do in cages but if you shop around you can get the material to build them relitively inexpensivly.

-Scott