Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Stock predators to thin out pond?

I just bought a piece of property with a one acre pond on it. It was stocked about 7-8 years ago with crappie, channel cats, hybrid bream and bluenose bream. About 3 years ago the pond turned over and killed all the large catfish in the pond.

We have been fishing the pond for about a month, twice a week and have caught a huge number of fish. However, only 3-4 of the bream have been 4-5 inches long. None of the catfish have been over 8 inches long. We have only caught 1 crappie.

My question is this: Would it be possible to stock some hybrid striped bass and let them "clean" the trash fish out of the pond? I could also supplement by feeding. I don't expect overnight results.

I know I can use Rotedone to kill everything and start over, but I hate to kill that many fish. Plus, I have a ton of good catfish in there, if the will just grow.

huntinut - my vote goes to large HSB stockers if you can find them.

Anything less that 6-8 inchers will be expensive fish food.
George Glazener

Stocking sufficient quantities of predators (HSB or LMB or ...) should result in fewer, larger fish in the current species as the small ones get eaten. It will probably not eliminate some species which you may or may not consider "trash" (I doubt the crappies will be eliminated).

I think you have to look closely to see what species are present and decide how "bad" it is compared with your goals. If the species present are ones you can live with, stock predators. If it's a real mess, renovating with rotenone will almost certainly result in reaching your goals faster than managing the existing population.

I don't like the thought of killing all existing fish in a pond either, but there comes a point for each of us where it is the smart thing to do. Where that point is, you have to decide yourself. The more info you get on what's in the pond (fishing results, observation, seine hauls) the better you can decide (there may be fish present which weren't in the stocking history you received).

I don't mind the current species, if the bream and catfish got bigger. Will stocking the HSBs cause a size increase in the other fish in the next couple years? Should I feed the fish if I stock HSBs?
I'm not sure about the crappie. I had heard that they would simply take over a pond the size of mine.

How much money would I look at spending to kill the pond and start from scratch on a if I wanted to stock bream/catfish/bass? Could I substitute HSBs for largemouth?

Also, another concern is whether or not the HSBs would even survive. I live in South Arkansas. The pond is a little less than an acre in size. It is about 8-10 feet at the deepest.

I am heading out there in the morning with a cast net and seine, so I will know more later.

Thanks for all the help.

Odds are that the fish population was out of control when you experienced the fish kill...either that, or a high rate of weed decomposition. Keep it simple, get a few 12" LMB in there first. Their mouths adapt to a much wider prey zone than the HSB as they mature. Having a 1 acre pond makes it easier to manage. Small HSB may only work if you kill and start over.

Good advice from everybody but I would proceed slowly until you know a lot more about the situation. No catfish over 8 inches sounds a lot more like bullheads than CC's. Too many of them and too many small bream sounds like a predator shortage. I doubt that it turned over and killed all of the large catfish. I don't know what a bluenose bream is but it sounds like you have a lot of them. I think I would start a feeding program and start keeping some records. If you are like most of us, the easy catching will slow down.

I don't remember the cost of rotenone but remember that it is expensive. However, everything else around a pond is. No matter what you do, only rotenone is a sure thing and it seldom kills everything. You're smart enough to not need immediate gratification. Thats a big plus.

Dave
The guy I bought the land from said he almost sank a 12 foot john boat from piling dead fish it it. There are probably a few big ones in there though.

The bluenose bream were put in as a forage fish, I beleive. The hybrid bream were to be the ones to catch. Last night I went out and threw my throw met for about an hour.

I caught 5-6 bream. I also caught 12 channel cats, 2 bullheads, and 14 of something else. These other fish almost look like minnows you buy at the bait shop, except they are 4-6 inches long.

What should I look for when I keep records? Just what I catch and what I see in the pond.

Should I toss all the small bream and catfish I catch into the woods or put them back in the pond?

huntinut, you are getting great input. I think that Dave Davidson has identified your primary problem perfectly. You don't know exactly what species you have in your lake. You might have bullheads rather than catfish. Bluenose bream might really be green sunfish. Are your crappie black or white crappie? Lots of people here will help you with fish ID. I think that your first step is to know exactly what you are working with.

I have yet to try it but if you can post pic of fish folks can id. Great advice so far. I believe largemouth are more effienct culling an overabundance of "bream" than HSB. HSB are beter with minnnows you describe. SO a combo might be in order. WIthout efficeint predation not surprised by what you are seeing. I would expect the crappie to more numerous.

I posted some pictures of some fish in the main observations section.

I went out to the pond today with a cast net. I caught 55 bream, 5 channel catfish, 30 of what I think are green sunfish (see photos), and a whole pile of some minnow type fish (see photos).