Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Common Carp Have Invaded My Pond!

I have a small pond which is less than an acre. Depths range from 6-15 feet, with an average around 8-10. I've posted about it on here before. I stocked it with fathead minnows a couple years ago, and with a half dozen adult pumpkinseeds last summer. My goal for the pond is a trophy PS fishery, or at least a fishery where I can catch some decent PS along with a few bass. I realize this pond is on the small side, but this is all I have to work with for the time being. My original plan was to finish stocking it this summer with more PS and either LMB or SMB.

However....nature has thrown a monkey wrench in my plan. We have been incredibly wet the past couple springs. A creek a few miles from the pond flooded its banks, and unfortunately, we are incredibly flat here in SD. I have been seeing carp in ditches 4+ miles away from the creek. I built a minnow trap and threw it out last week. When I checked it, I had dozens of huge crayfish and one 4" common carp. I assume there are way more in there, and potentially some adults. The creek also has bullhead, and although I haven't found any in my pond, they quite possibly got in too.

I am looking for advice on how to move forward. I found a source for PS which ships 1.5-2" fish. I also found a hatchery a couple hours away which I plan to get LMB from, and I can also go catch some adult LMB if needed. Will the LMB+angling pressure be enough to keep the carp (and bullhead?) numbers down? The aforementioned hatchery also advertises tiger musky and pure musky. Would adding a couple of these keep the larger carp in check, or will they do more harm that good by eating PS and LMB?

I realize there are a lot of variables at play here, and no one can predict what will happen with certainty. However, I have always gotten great advice here in the past and would love to hear input from those with more experience than myself.
Thanks, Derek

Carp are a problem, actually a difficult problem. IMO the more small bass you have in the pond the fewer carp that will survive each year. Musky after a few years will likely eat as many bass (8"-13") as carp primarily because the musky will encounter bass more frequently than carp, being bass stay higher off the bottom and carp generally stay closer to the bottom. I think the musky will stay more mid-water near structure or cover where bass frequently hang out looking for small fish. A few large catfish being near bottom feeders, I think will eat more carp than bass - opposite of the musky.

I think you will also have to learn how to be a good carp angler to target adult spawner carp. Watch Youtube videos of how to bait and catch carp. Using corn and dough bait as chum will tend to focus catching carp. Have family gatherings with prizes for most carp and largest carp caught.

Return here every once in awhile and report your results with managing your fishery. New members then may be able to provide more carp removal ideas.

I've been playing the carp game for years. If I were you, and if this was an option, I'd pump the pond dry and kill it off and start over. They absolutely destroy the bottom of your food chain and it's very difficult to gain much from that point on.

Also of note is that I read a study from Minnesota that ponds full of BG have 11 times less common carp reproduction than lakes that don't. The theory is that they forage on carp eggs and larva. I'd assume this is true with PS as well.

My experience in a similar sized pond was that I controlled the reproduction. The problem became that carp are such long lived fish, that even if you stop reproduction completely you'd need to rid the pond of all adults. And that isn't as easy as you'd think. In fact, I'd say it's nearly impossible.

If I were you, I wouldn't fight the battle I've been fighting for 20 years. I'd kill it off and start over.

Thanks for the advice! I hadn't considered that about them inhabiting the same spots, but it makes sense. I'll be sure to check back in the future as things develop.

Thanks for the reply! Unfortunately, even if I kill the pond off, I believe carp will eventually find their way back in, whether it takes 1, 5, or 10 years. Between your advice and Bill Cody's, it seems the best course of action is to focus on predation of year of young carp, rather than the large ones. Thus, it sounds like I should get about getting it stocked ASAP.

What rates would you guys recommend for my stocking? The PS which I found are 1.5-2", but they are quite expensive. The source where I plan to get the LMB has both 3-5" and 6-8" fish at a much more reasonable price. I figure the best course of action would be to stock the bare minimum of PS to make sure I get a population started, and then make sure to stock plenty of LMB to hopefully go to work on potential yoy carp. However, I have no idea what number would actually achieve these two goals, or which size LMB I should get. Input from those more experienced than I would be greatly appreciated!

I would start with a 'stronger' number of bass than what is often suggested for a northern BG-LMB pond. Normally this is 100 LMB/ac and you have close to an acre. Your goal is extra heavy predation of YOY carp (young of year). I think somewhere around 140-175 LMB or even 200. This number of LMB will also strongly limit PS recruitment, thus you may have to add BG or HBG to have a successful panfish fishery. However the panfish that survive in your pond will be big ones. Maybe some LMB of each size 3-5" and some 6"-8". I think the larger LMB will eat some of the YOY carp escapees as they grow to 2.5". Although if some of your PS will be 1.5" then stay more with the 3"-5" LMB. If you decide you have too many bass, IMO it will be easier to remove bass than carp.

The other thing that I would try and do is minimize the amount of spawning habitat for the carp. Research carp spawning habits. As I know it carp like to spawn in shallow grass areas around emergent vegetation. Koi raisers use cotton strand mop heads as spawn substrate for their koi. So this type of structure you want to minimize. Given the chance carp will find a way to spawn on just about any shallow structure. They wallow around shallow shoreline areas when spawning. At the lake we used to get carp eggs attached to the bottom and sides of our 20ft walleye fishing boat that was morred in the marina.

Another thing you should investigate is the use of a flag net or a large mesh gill net that will only catch big fish based on the size of the mesh. This net is designed to catch - entangle large fish and should select for adult carp. Small fish will swim through the large net mesh. Another option that I would seriously explore is to use a cove or corner of the pond and during summer of pre and post spawn bait it with soaked corn. Carp can be trained to regularly feed actively in this area. They will learn to depend on it. Once trained and a short while after the daily corn feeding has been distributed pull the flag or gill net in behind the carp feeding area to entrap and catch them with the net. Continue to regularly feed and use the net only once every week or two and you should catch lots of adult carp during the course of a summer.

Miller Net Company ""If you need a gill net that you do not see listed in our catalog, give us a call. We can make it. Custom nets are our specialty!""
Also check with Memphis Net and Twine for nets.
If you need advice of how big of a net mesh call the company; they are specialists. Tell them what you are doing and it is for catching adult carp. They will advise you which type of net is best.
Website Quote ""Flag Gill Nets aka Shirt tail nets. Flag nets are the least expensive of the gill nets, but when used in still water and little or no wind, they are still quite effective in catching fish. Flag nets are constructed out of multifilament or monofilament gill netting with a small rope at the top. There are no floats, leads or bottom rope. The net is fished by tying it between trees, stakes, or jugs. As the fish approaches the net, the water displaced by the fish's movement causes the netting to swirl, catching the fish through gilling or tangling. Flag nets are not recommended in moving water or in windy conditions.""

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myBINIzmbJo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR-SR3gNDdM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8HSh9z-Zic

Excellent - Holding and Removing fish from gill nets Girls can be very good at it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkLVKZhWhgU

Those videos reminded me of our trip to Alaska last year. We watched the boats netting fish in Valdez near the salmon fish hatchery. I think they were using seines though instead of gill nets. A motor boat pulled the seine in a circle back to the winch boat that drew the seine into a tighter circle.

Thanks again for the response, and sorry I haven't got back to this thread sooner, as I've been busy with online finals for school. Those stocking numbers should give me a starting point for getting some fish lined up. I'll look into some nets once I get a better idea of whats going on in my pond.