Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding establishing an old pond

Im trying to reestablish my old catfish pond. There are a bunch of small 6-8 inch channel catfish in there and Im sure its overpopulated. I am now starting to feed them regularly with a fish feeder. What is everyones thoughts on increasing forage? Do I stock BG? Or is just feeding the catfish enough to increase their size?

It’s unusual for catfish fry to over populate. They swim slowly, go everywhere in a group and are easily picked off by larger fish.

Not saying it can’t happen but......

It's probably not best to add BG. If you wanted to add some minnow species like FHM and Gambusia that may be better. Feed is all you need to grow them. Below are a couple of links on monoculture. The second link has discussion around growing all stages of CC in the same pond.

Monoculture of Catfish


SMALL-SCALE AND HOME-USE CHANNEL CATFISH FARMING

I think they will answer most of your questions.

Its about your goals. If you just want CC for eating then just feeding to eating size will work but watch out for DO problems. If you want to fish for more than CC then you will need another plan. What is your goal?

Mainly just for my kids to go down and catch fish. Would like some decent size catfish in there (2-6lb range). I plan on catching the ones that are eating size out to help with the population overload. I was just thinking the BG for the catfish to eat

Are you sure they're channels? Oftentimes they have trouble reproducing in ponds but they can find a way.

My brother-in-law has a pond with a couple of old tractor tires in it. There is very good reproduction in it. There are some big ones but most are small (less than 8"). He catches fingerlings from it and transfers them to another pond that is deep and clear and has GSF & LES. He feeds a little in this pond. Through the years he has moved many hundreds of fingerlings and has harvested many hundreds of pounds of catfish.

The pond for fingerlings only has catfish and golden shiner in it.

This is good point. If there are enough fingerling sized CC they might attain too high a standing weight before they reach the desired size. They are probably already at the carrying capacity and so if you will harvest CC in proportion to the amount you feed you can avoid running into problems. For example lets say you have fed 80 lbs of feed ... then knowing the FCR for the average weight of fish in your pond ... you can estimate the weight you need to harvest. For example, 9" fish have an FCR of ~1.4. So for every 80 lbs you feed remove 80/1.4 = 57 lbs of catfish.

In the beginning, you may have to harvest small fish. It depends on how many mouths there are to feed. Even so, any fish > than 9" can be cleaned just like a bullhead and pan fried. Its worth the effort. 2 or 3 of them make a meal for one person and by doing this the rest of the catfish can grow larger.

I would delay adding forage fish until you have thinned out the CC and have a good number of >2 lb CC. I would then give a lot of consideration to tilapia which do not compete heavily with CC and that will provide food for the CC both while living and after they have died in the winter.

CC and HBG with feeding are a good combination for a put and take fishery.

If there is sunken spawning habitat, you could consider removing some to reduce reproduction as well.

Good deal, Thanks for all the advice! I will continue to feed and catch as many eating size CC out as I can to thin the numbers. I believe if i can get the numbers down, I should start to grow bigger ones. I wish I knew what they were reproducing in at this pond, but there is nothing visible