Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Tiger Musky in VA

I have a 20 acre pond in eastern VA with a max depth of 10', and average depth of around 7'. The pond has excellent cover throughout. There's currently largemouth, bluegill, crappie, chain pickerel, and pumpkinseed in the pond. I've been told by two different hatcheries that tiger musky will survive, and its been recommended to stock 1/acre at 10-12". What are yall's thoughts on wether than can handle the water temps in eastern VA, and what affect do you think this stocking would have on my trophy largemouth. The state recommends removing 10 bass/acre/year 12-16". Would the musky help with this? Just curious to your thoughts as I'd love to be able to add these fish if it makes sense. Any feedback would be greatley appreciated.

Sounds like a great pond to me!

Do you and family/friends have the ability to fish and remove 200 bass per year in your slot? I would think so.

I think tiger musky are pretty smart predators, but I am not sure you can teach them to read your slot limit rules. If you remove the bass yourself, then you can control the numbers and assume some annual number of natural morts, to have a pretty good idea on "bass removed".

I am definitely NOT an expert on your type of fishery. However, I think I would want my chain pickerel to thrive. They can eat your small crappie if your pond ever starts moving toward a stunted crappie situation. They should also eat some of the smaller bass, so you can have more of you total bass carrying capacity in larger fish. Have the chain pickerel spawned in your pond?

The chain pickerel record for Virginia is under 8#. The musky record is over 45#. That fish would eat whatever it wanted to eat in your pond.

IMO, I would see how well the pond was achieving my fishing goals with the current mix of fish. If something is off, perhaps you could add musky later. (I have no idea if large bass would eat a 12" stocked musky, or if they are too quick.)

OTOH, if you wanted to have trophy tiger musky as one of your bonus fish, perhaps a 20-acre pond is just big enough to pull that off!

What about the concern for high water temps in the summer?

I'm curious, how are you doing on your goal of Trophy LMB?

What do you feel is holding you back from the next size class?

While I love fish with teeth (Walleye, Sauger, Saugeye, Pike, Musky...), the addition of an apex predator would make me really think through my stocking. Looks like you are talking about stocking (20) fish. Catching those (20) may prove a difficult endeavor should you decide to remove them later. If it's a bonus fish application, I might go half the rate and if I felt like it wasn't enough....stock a few more in a few years or ladder stock them in as they are true hybird and won't reproduce. Ladder stocking would hopefully also prevent the fish from aging out in one group.

only had the pond since march, have already caught a few lmb 7lbs and have seen a possible 10. pond is 40 years old and probably has never been properly managed. it does have a surplus of 1lb lmb. what are your thought on summer time water temps with less than 10' of depth???

Any history on max water temp you have seen this year at various depths?

Guessing on a 20acre BoW you are not aerating. I think, limited on experience here and guessing, that the usable water in the middle of the summer is the key on survival. The fish will tell you though. If water temps are a big concern, ladder stock them in and see how they do.

Nice LMB in there.

Here you go - study on TM thermal max.

All keep in mind that survival is not the only important question. Most fish species stocked into a temperature stressed location will not grow well even if they survive. Fish under stress tend to do poorly.

http://seafwa.005.neoreef.com/Docum...ts/2018%20Journal/J5_03Snowetal17-22.pdf

10# LMB, and maybe some overabundance of 1# bass? That sounds pretty well-managed to me on a BOW of that size.

Some of the ponds on the forum are what I would call "hyper managed". These can even be smaller than 1 acre, and the managers absolutely try to push the carrying capacity of their favorite species in that pond.

To match that level of management at your pond, you would probably need to be out there all of the time, own a shock boat, and sit on a wallet so fat that you can't sit down in your pickup truck without hitting your head on the roof.

Where are you more specifically in Virginia? Elevation and more northward certainly could have a large impact on your water temps.

Nice study, ewest!

Fish (and humans) certainly do not thrive under great stress.

[That reminds me, I need to get out and fish more!]

Lancaster County, VA in North Eastern part of the state, no elevavation, near the Chesapeake Bay.

Your location actually has a higher average annual temperature than the Oklahoma lake in ewest's musky study. However, I suspect the Oklahoma lake has colder winters and warmer summers. It is the summer heat that most stresses the muskies, so you might be a tad less than the study lake.

I think musky might "live" in your lake, but it would be tough for them to "thrive". (Total non-expert, non-local opinion!)

Without water temp data there is no way to correctly answer your water temp question. While your area may have a higher average annual temp than the OK lake in the study, elevation also comes into play.

Another thing to think about is how easily is a 10"-12" hammer handle shaped muskie could be slurped down by a 5#-10# LMB?

Many 1# bass to me mean that the lake is LMB stunted. I'd remove 30 of the 1# LMB per acre per year for the next few years.