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Joined: Mar 2011
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so heres an update on the fishing. to date, we have harvested a total of 64lbs of LMB (121 total fish), so average is a little under .5 lbs. we released 7 fish ranging from 3.5 - 5.0 lbs. we are aiming at removing 300 bls of fish or ~600 total of our average size. we are making progress, but this is work. it started as fun, but not anymore.

We caught 2 crappie today. i saw a large school of fry and assumed they were crappie since i havent seen any bream or bass beds, and the fry were in deep water.

i am still waiting on soil sample report to come back

i have a couple of questions for the experts.

1. will the LMB that are stunted gain weight or will the new generation be the large growing fish when there is enough food.

2. can a small pond sustain a healthy bluegill population with crappie and LMB?

3. would it be okay to electrofish this pond to remove the biomass?

thanks jb
pics of the fish uploading soon.

Last edited by jbrown2004; 03/22/11 12:02 AM.
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I am no expert, but I can give you some answers.

1. The stunted LMB will gain weight, but because of the stunting will probably never reach trophy size. It is the newly born bass who will perform best. Keep removing bass.

2. Depends on how you define healthy. In short I'd say yes, but it is a challenge. Remove every crappie you catch! Crappies and BG can compete for certain food sources. Feeding your BG will also help. If you want to grow really large BG, then you'd want to keep the LMB overpopulated and hungry.

3. Yes, it would be OK to electrofish the pond. In fact, it'd make things a lot easier. If you haven't already done an electroshock survey of your pond, you may learn quite a bit.

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CJBS thanks. i would like to have a nice bass pond. producing 10 lb bass and having a normal population where we catch 2-3 lbers regularly. i dont like catching the .4 lbers. i usually dont fish for crappie but perhaps now i will.

I spoke with my states fisheries dept today and they agreed to come out and electro siene the pond, do the survey and help me remove some biomass. They were pretty impressed at how detailed my records are this year.

Sounds like we are moving in the right direction.
Grow baby bass Grow!

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1. See this thread - http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92500#Post92500

2. Yes with feeding and crappie removal mgt.

3, Yes - in fact it is the best way for LMB.
















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That's great the state has agreed to come out and electroshock for you... If your goal is to grow a 10 pound bass or 2 and many 3-4 pounds, I'd remove pretty much every bass that comes in during the electroshock.

Take photos of the event and record the number, size and species of every fish that comes that you can... Then post it on here for us to evaluate. I am sure the biologist(s) that come out to do the electroshocking can give you some advice as well.

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well, its time for an update. the soil report came back a few months ago. it recommended adding 1T/acre of lime. since my ponds are separated by a small spillway that only runs when the ponds are full, we decided to put lime in only one. this would allow me to monitor the progress. we also bought an automatic fish feeder and began feeding our bream. i bought a truck load of lime. totalled 27 tons of dolomite from birmingham. after i subtracted for moisture and relative neurtalizing value, we placed 20 tons of lime in 5 acres for 4T/acre. we began spreading the lime from small boat with a piece of plywood across the bow. we eventually ran out of time that weekend and just used the front end loader on the tractor to place several piles of lime around the edges. and the waiting began.

we continued fishing for harvest. the pond started showing some decreasing visibility in 2 months, but not a full blown bloom.

the state came out in mid may, and did an electro shock survey. it was a free service and they only shocked a total of 1 hour. we were able to remove 36 fish for 18 pounds. i wasnt impressed with the shock, but they did get a couple of 5 lbers and 1 two pounder. they also shocked up many bream. they also got a few fish they called chubs. so at that point, we had removed approximately 150 lbs of LMB.

I was still having problems with weeds. the water clarity hadnt helped so far, so i tested the water at the local pool store. it showed 50 ppm alkalinity, so i fertilized. i fertilized even though i had an established weed problem. i started with 50 pounds in the 5 acres but added 100 more two weeks later. i began noticing a brown phytoplankton bloom, but not 14 inches of visibility.

knowing that i was about to get busy, i added 40 carp to the 5 acre pond. that was mid june.

i returned this past weekend to assess the progress of the pond. the first thing i noticed was the color of the water. there was a green phytoplankton bloom and the visibility had decreased to the right level. i saw many carp around the edges, and to my surprise, there was no grass. the weeds were gone. im assuming this was due to the carp and the decreased penetration of light. i only caught 2 fish, but one was 5.5 lbs and healthy. the other was a juvenile, and was healthy also.

throughout the process, i was able to tag about 10 fish and hopefully, we will monitor their growth in the coming years. the fish ranged in size from 2-5 lbs.

in summary, the state biologist said the pond could be overcrowded. they thought i had made a dent in the population. they also said i had a healthy bream population. they suggested harvest until a balanced population was being caught. they thought i would see improvement next year.

so this year, i learned some valuable information for pond management. you have to harvest yearly. lime matters. it takes time.

and now for my plans for the future. we are going to add some new genetics to the pond. soon, we are going to add F1 hybrids. i am not sure on the quantity yet. but that will be the last variable for the pond.

we are in a drought in mississippi and my water level is down 2-3 feet. since my 10 acres of water are separated by the spillway, we are going to dig out the spillway between them so there is always water communication between the ponds. after that, i will probably get another load of lime for the other 5 acres next year. i would also like to get a population of threadfin, but due to the cost, it may be a couple of years.

i am pleased with the progress made this year. i will post again next year when i start harvesting again. im sure i will fish some more this year, but i dont want a lot of fishing pressure on the fish for the rest of the growing sesson.

in my eyes, this has been a success.

stay tuned. if you are reading this post with the same problem, hopefully this will give you some encouragement.

happy fishing!

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Sounds like all the work is paying off. Keep us updated.
















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40 carp?? I quess you'll be working on removing them next..?


I believe in catch and release. I catch then release to the grease..

BG. CSBG. LMB. HSB. RES.

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from the MSU pond management pdf file found here:
http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p1428.pdf

recommendation is 5-10/acre for weed control. for severe infestations, 10-20/acre are recommended.
i may have to remove them later.

i want to lime my connected pond next year. i will need those carp to control those weeds. but i have to dig the spillway out deeper first. i just dont want to do that until i lime it. even if i dont dig it out, when the rains come, water will overflow and fill the lower pond and some of the carp will probably go with it.

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Yeah there supposedly pretty efficient at a young age.. When they get older they really aren't worth a sh*t and can turn a pond into chocolate milk the way they stir it up..


I believe in catch and release. I catch then release to the grease..

BG. CSBG. LMB. HSB. RES.

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Some of the lime will effect the other pond as well if connected. You put enough for both for a while.
















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what is the best fertilizer to use?
ive been using 0-46-0. i was wondering if i need to add some nitrogen?

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If you have a good bloom you don't need extra N. Get the water and soil tested and that will tell you for sure. I do have one pond that I put some N in to jump start things and it works. You could try water sol pond fert as it has some (small amount) of N. Only a small % of ponds need extra N.

Last edited by ewest; 09/19/11 09:47 AM.















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