Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking oh no...largemouth

We received over 2" of rain today and my pond was flowing through the overflow.
It is 3/4 acre and stocked with YP, RES & WE..........I was looking at my overflow discharge and noticed lots of fry swimming in the shallow grass. Tons of 2" LMB fry!

What should I do?????????

Thanks

Get use too LMB, if there's fry there's prolly larger ones? Unless these small ones just washed in?

Yeah, time to learn to manage having LMB in your pond...

What do you think will happen and on what timeline?

Hard to say, as it is hard to know exactly how many and of what maturity are the LMB that found their way into your pond via the high water event. When the water levels go down and you can safely fish, I would fish and target LMB of different sizes. I would also attempt a seine survey if you own a seine to see what YOY are present and in what numbers...

The LMB did not enter via high water for the only water entering is from runoff rain water via hills and gutters. Can blue herons or ducks introduce them?

I've put a huge amount of effort, money and time into this pond and feel just sick! oh well, it could be worse! thanks

I'd put my money on a neighbor kid, friend or a helpful relative stocking the LMB vs. a bird.

Target fish for the LMB and remove every one caught, no matter if they are 1" long or 24" long. Anybody that fishes the pond has to do the same thing too. I wouldn't let anybody fish the pond with live minnows because they might dump the excess in the pond, and you never know what is in the bucket unless you inspect every minnow .

I question the wisdom of YP, RES, and walleye. LMB may be a good thing.

Can you get a pic for positive id..

I'm with Esshup. Birds don't bring fish any more than storks bringing babies.

WHAT??? Storks don't bring babies????

I have heard this logic in the past and often wondered the odds of eggs being transported by waterfowl? My other pond has LMB, BG, RES and crappie. This is the only pond I've let other people fish in. This pond is also approx 6" below grade of my YP pond and the runoff from these ponds do not mix.

I told my neighbor my goals and not to stock any of his fish in this pond if he had the urge to help me. I hate to think he would have added them for whatever reason but ....... it's is what is it is and time to look forward.

I'll try to post some pics today.

Cecil, can you tell me your approach of managing this mix in that, YP will make it to the table for years to come?

Thank you all

here some.......lost lots of tadpoles too! They are only an inch or so long.

I just see a lack of a predators to keep the YP and RE numbers down. Have you conferred with Bill Cody? But now that you have lmb that's a moot point.

Little eating machines!

I'm hoping Bill will chime in!

I'm hoping this pond can be something different than a basic BG & LMB mix. I've been trapping with a minnow trap every year and never caught a LMB till now. Assuming this is the first year of a LMB spawn, how will this pond evolve with little management? Can it be saved with removement of all bass caught?

Darn. Did you check every fish including all minnows that came from the hatchery??. I commonly see a few LMB fingerlings in the mix of other species of fingerlings from 'hatcheries'. This is often a fact of fish farm management especially if the operation is more than a one man operation. Regardless you have LMB.

Back to your original plan. CB1 says -""I question the wisdom of YP, RES, and walleye. LMB may be a good thing."" I think the walleye could have easily controlled the YP-RES combination. If the few initial stocker walleye were not getting the predatory job accomplished, then just add more WE each year until you see the balance or your goal happening. You want a few but not too many YP and RES each year moving into the mature class of fish. Numbers recruited each year are based on the harvest rate, predation rate, natural mortality, and the amount of food available so the recruits always grow well.

Management of numbers is not going to be as easy now since LMB are in the fishery. The number of LMB fingerlings you are seeing is a good indication of the potential number of big mouthed, hungry, predator LMB that will be added each year from as few as two mature bass. Not good at all IMO for the goal of a YP-RES fishery.

esshup says: ""Target fish for the LMB and remove every one caught, no matter if they are 1" long or 24" long."" I agree with this. In weed-free ponds with a focus on YP that have LMB the only ones I see that are really successful IMO are those that remove every LMB caught. This keeps the prolific predators well controlled so the YP regularly recruit new perch into the fishery. I would also add a few walleye in hopes the WE when established will also eat a few small bass (2"-6") to help keep their density lower. IMO you can not remove too many bass with your original goal for the fishery. Two adult bass will produce more bass than you want or need each year. I am now seeing some small ponds produce very good YP fisheries with just perch, pellet feeding and no predators besides YP.

Not what I wanted to hear but life goes on. The only bulk fish added were FHM in 2009 and were not inspected closely. If YOY LMB were in this batch, would the timeline be correct for the first spawn this year?

I stocked 33 WE 6 to 8 inches last fall.......how many more would I want to stock? Would bigger be better? How uphill is my climb?

Bill, a lot of good things happened in creating this fishery and one was meeting you and trying to follow your advise! Keep on doing what you do.......it means more than you know.

Doug & Michelle

The time line is good for LMB coming in with your FHM. Stock contamination is very likely the most common way unwanted species find their way into a pond. FHM are often stocked first before bass or other predators. Thus the hitchhikers get a predator free food rich head start.

That's music to my ears.....I like my neighbor! lol

I see green sunfish and sticklebacks combined with fatheads very commonly in my area when they are bought in bulk. Very good idea to look them over before planting.

This year I found a little pike in my pond. Not sure on how did it get there (in this case it's certainly not neighbour kid :D) but I'm sure that it was not the only one.
It might change a lot but life still goes on and probably I'll find a solution. I wish the same to you, bigbambo.

I think birds do carry them, perhaps as fertilized eggs on their feet. I have a big pond across the road and a small one in front of the house. The small one is strictly a HBG pond with nothing else added. I feed them and fish them out to eat as well as let family and friends bring their kids to fish. A Heron used to visit everyday until the boogey man got him. Somehow BH catfish got in there and they seem to get into any fishery in this area. I seine them out but never get them all. They train to feed at an early age.

Um, no. Nothing is ever 100% regarding ponds, but how would they do this? The eggs are not sticky (so how would they stick to their feet), and they have to be fanned to keep oxygenated water washing over the eggs.

Cody note: some fish eggs are quite sticky. So if a fish lays eggs on a birds foot how does the eggs get off the foot. Did you ever try to scrape carp eggs off the side of a boat. One needs a putty knife. Also a wet fish egg dries out pretty quickly once it leaves the water. It doesn't take much drying to kill the egg or keep it from hatching.

Thanks!

I'll keep monitoring and recording this pond's life cycle. It might help someone, some day.