Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Est .5 acre pond help

Hey! I have a half-acre pond that has LMB and BG already. I want to be able to primarily catch channel cats with the pond being primarily used as a food source. I've read a bit and would love to add to the existing setup instead of making it CC only. I'm thinking 8-10" CC is what I need to add...any thoughts on this?

How big are your existing LMB?

If you have LMB that are getting to 4lbs and larger, you may experience some predation 8-10" CC, so you'd have to stock more in anticipation of some loss.

Also, what are your plans for food sources to grow the CC to harvesting size? Will you feed fish food or do you intend to have a 'natural' set up?

Thanks for the reply. I haven't caught any bass 4lbs or larger but I honestly haven't taken many out. I guess that's another question is how should I handle removing bass to keep the catfish alive?

I'm leaning toward fish food. What do you mean by "natural" setup? There are lots of small BG and a good bit of natural cover on the shallow end.

What I meant by 'natural' is that you don't use fish feed and try to get the CC to grow by them eating other fish and other naturally occurring forage.

Is it bad to supplement some fish food with what's already there? How many CC would you recommend adding to ensure survival? It's actually .6 acres if that helps.

The usage of fish food/feed actually increases the things you can do with your pond. In a simple sense, you can grow more and bigger fish if you use feed.

Consider that a predator fish needs to eat 10 lbs of forage fish to gain (1) lb. of weight. That's a 10:1 ratio.

Feed converts at approx. 2:1. If you feed 10 lbs of feed, you should put on 5 lbs of weight on the fish.

Sunil has some good information. If you use the best higher quality fish food your conversion rate could be very close to 1:1 for the catfish and for BG if they train to eat pellets. If I was wanting to not get my stocker CC eaten by the biggest bass be sure to stock the Sunil suggested sizes. 8"-10". The larger and older stocker size of CC will more quickly come and eat the pellets. If you add those 8"-10" CC by May 20 you could have some CC close and to 2 pounds by fall and maybe 3 lbs when in MS with good pelleted food with 40% protein. Best good name high protein brands are Purina Sport Fish, Cargill, Optimal. Check bag tag for protein content. CC will eat cheap 32% pellets but their food consumed conversion is closer to the 2:1 rate. BG grow much better with 40% protein.

Start by gradually adding just a handful of pellets per day until you see fish eating pellets well. Then add pellets daily near sunset on one location. Add enough pellets that are all consumed in 10 minutes. For 0.6 ac and CC are 2+ lbs, I would not add more than 1 to maybe 2 quarts of pellets per day.

If it were my pond I would harvest as many big bluegill as the number of CC that you stock a 1:1 ratio. This helps maintain a better carrying capacity for a healthier fishery. CC at 16"+ begin to regularly eat small fish also. I think one medium catfish takes the place of one bass with Bass eating fish during the day and CC eating fish at night when CC can best catch and eat resting fish of both BG & small LMB. If you want to make the CC the predominant fish in the pond, I think you could stock 25-40 CC if you also remove the same number of large BG. LMB and big BG eat hatchling baby CC so you will probably not see very much recruitment from the CC if your pond has good numbers of bass. Catch and eat 10 CC restock 10.

Thanks for all the amazing information! So basically there is no way to have a self-sustaining LMB, BG, and CC pond the size that I have? I would always have to keep purchasing catfish regularly...right?

Channel Catfish need some very specific spawning structures to successfully reproduce in ponds. Basically they need things they can get in to, like a 5 gallon bucket on it's side or similar things.

Feed will help you grow the fish to harvesting size.

...but it's highly unlikely to have a self sustaining CC population for me even if I did at multiple catfish spawning structures is what I'm hearing right?

I had CC spawn in a 2/3 acre pond. They utilized either 2 or 3 7 gallon buckets laid on their sides or a 70-ish galllon watering trough placed upside down with a hole in one end. Although I caught a few 8-9'' CC from the spawn, I don't think any of them made it to adulthood.

Absent predators, its easy to get too many CC from reproduction; with predators, its very hard to get just the right number. Fortunately advanced CC fingerlings are both readily available about about the cheapest fish to buy in any size.

Thanks for the info. How deep would did you place the buckets and trough? Should it be toward the shallow end?

According to Lusk, a truly balanced pond is for about 15 minutes in its life

You might look into stocking Blue Cats instead of Channels. Their growth rate may start out slow but they can really pack on the pounds as they age. With a feeder you can really ramp up their growth rate. In addition to their 20-30% faster growth rate, they also get much larger, and in my opinion taste better too. (since your goal is table food)

I added in 100 CC yesterday around 8 inches. Gonna start feeding them and see what happens. Really trying to figure out what structure I can add in to give them the best chance to reproduce.

Have you seen this regarding catfish laying eggs? :https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=555237&Searchpage=1&Main=42512&Words=bucket&Search=true#Post555237

That's being very optimistic. LOL

If I wanted to grow CC in my pond it would be a strictly catch and remove proposition, then restock when required. CC are so cheap that trying to manage their numbers would be more of a PITA than it's worth.