Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Help evaluating my fish growth

0.7 acre pond first stocked March 24, 2023 with:

375 Coppernose Bluegill 2 - 3 inches long;
8 lbs Fat Head Minnows 1 - 2 inches long;
75 Fingerling Channel Catfish 6 - 8 inches long.

May 2024: 100 LMB 6" long


Caught one catfish March 16, 2025 that weighed 3.15 pounds and was 21.5" long. Looked healthy (and tasted great!)
Since I am new to all this, I was wondering if this was appropriate growth.

Thanks for any advice!
Douglas

I'm relatively new myself, but in the past I've used the eyeball test. If the fish looked thick throughout and the belly was full I assumed healthy and thriving. On the flip side, if the fish had a big head and small body structure I would assume malnourished or old/weak.

I've since found a really good app - It's called SmartFish US

It uses length and weight to measure relative weight and its completely free. There is a paid version too if you want more detail / tracking ability.

I will say, the old eyeball test still works just fine; I've just got a name for it now in relative weight

I'm guessing that you are not feeding fish feed into the pond?'

While the channel cat does not look 'unhealthy,' it does look a little bit thin, and I'm wondering if you've ran out of forage fish to feed the catfish.

Sunil, I feed a combo of Aqua Max and Purina Game Chow from early spring thru late fall when water temperature is above 50 degree (pond is in north Texas). I thought it looked a little thin myself, that is why I asked. I still see lots 1 - 3 inch FHM and BG coming to the food. I will have to increase the amount I am feeding and see what happens over the next 6 months. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them.

How many bags of feed do you go through each year?

Great question........have not actually paid that close attention to it. I think it would be about 2 bags of each (possibly 3 bags of the Game Chow). Seems like I need to pay closer attention to that this year. Maybe I need to source a few pounds of FHM as well?

Conventional wisdom says adding fathead with existing predator fish is a short term thing with not much upside. However, if you have a lot of structure for fatheads to hide in, you may get greater survival and spawning of fatheads. But again, if the fatheads can easily hide and/or avoid predation, they're not really helping at all.


Do you see your catfish taking feed?

Most of the time the BG and LMB are seen at the feeder. There is one area my 9 yr old likes to throw out kibble dog food and watch the CC come up and eat. We see a few come to the feeder, but when she throws out the dog food in her "special spot" we easily see 6+ at a time coming up to feed.
There is some structure, but not really thick stuff....it is the Reclaimed PVC Fish Habitat Structures from Fishiding dot com

Thanks for the answers.

Probably the next set of questions are regarding the quantity and health of the Coppernose Bluegill, and the same questions for the LMB.

Over the last month, the kids have been catching BG ranging from 3 - 8 inches, most around 5". Have not caught any bass since the fall. When I do, I can update this thread. Thank you for your time.

You're welcome!

I think we should hear some other's opinions about if the pictured catfish is thinner than it should be. Also, have you caught other CC? Were they similar in size?

Not bad looking at all, if it was tasty and fun to catch, that’s all that really matters
The RW chart says it’s about 1 lb under weight for its length.
For reference, the CC in the photo was stock 11 months prior at 6”
18” at 2.8# as of 8/21/24

Thanks, Jason D!

Great information for comparison.

Sunil, That was the first and only one that we have caught this spring. Hopefully I will get some free time this weekend to catch a few more for comparison.

Jason D, thank you for the comparison. I need to get me feeder up and running this weekend and toss out a little more food than I did last year.

DPMESA,

I think the growth is very respectable. 1.5 lbs gain per year is good. Also 21.5 inches in two years after stocking at 7" avg length is good too. Might surprise you but the average time it takes a 7" CC to eclipse 20" in OK reservoirs is 6 years. So this is the difference feed is making for them.

There has been mention that the CC was on the light side. When I first checked a table that I acquired some years ago, it implied the CC was 100 RW. But searching another on the web it implied 86 RW. The chart that Jason referenced implies 76 RW. The RW in part depends on which chart is referenced. That said, Jason's fish demonstrates that it has potential to consume more than it did.

So was the CC underfed? I am loathe to suggest that. What we are looking at is a CC that is growing 3 times faster than wild counterparts making a tougher living. You made life a lot easier for them. Should you feed more? That depends on you. What I would tell you is that the CC are competing with your BG and LMB for feed and you will have to feed more than what the CC would need by themselves. It will be harder to push their growth than it will to reduce their competition.

I like that you ate that wonderful CC. Eat some more of them! If you want to grow as much harvest weight of them for the least amount of feed, then crop them heavily. A 12" CC can grow to 2 lbs in a season. The bigger they get, the worse the FCR and harder it is to feed them enough to grow them at the initial rates you observed. It is very likely that if you harvested all you could catch > 18" that some would still grow into larger lengths providing larger fish in the future. You could consider a ladder of 12" CC each year. A lesser density of them to help them grow faster (something like 25 per year) may be a good idea.

The CC have been very elusive and hard to catch in my 5 acre pond so I don't have alot of data on them
Between my BG, 100 Wipers and 100 CC , along with the few Grass Carp, they consumed approximately 800 lbs of pellets in 2024
It may be a little overkill with the supplemental feeding but I feel between that and the very low stocking rates with correct forage numbers and good water quality, One can grow big fish in a hurry

JPS, the chart I have shows

18" - 2.4#
19" - 2.9#
20" - 3.4#
21" - 4.1#
22" - 4.7#

I don't think 800 lbs of feed is overkill for a 5 acre pond (160 lbs/acre). DPSMESA thought he fed 5 bags last year. If 50 lbs/bag, then a little over 350 lbs/acre

Also 20 CC per acre, is a modest stocking rate that is very conducive to rapid CC growth in Jason's pond. Aside from the differences in the CC, it is the differences between the water and populations that are also very important for comparison. There are 20 CC to the acre in Jason's pond and 107 CC to the acre in DPSMESA's pond. There are 142 feed trained LMB to the acre in DPSMESA's pond. Jason, I don't recall your LMB stocking density but it seems it was restricted to complement the goal of trophy LMB. Jason's pond is one year younger since initial stocking. Jason's pond is older and refurbished and may contain more native nutrients driving more production of natural foods on a per acre basis. To get comparable results requires similar conditions and population densities.

jpsdad, Thank you for the great info!

One note IMO about CC. Each one of the in a pond takes the place of one LMB. Myself I prefer LMB compared to CC. CC can learn to be pellet hogs. The larger they get the more they eat pellets from the other fish. If you prefer CC vs LMB then keep doing what you are doing. If you like LMB more then start harvesting every CC you catch. The apparent thin body of the CC is probably due to several reasons. 1. Winter slow down of eating, 2. Lack or aggressiveness getting enough food. 3. Plus other unknown reasons.

IMO Some here would say you stocked too many CC and LMB in 0.7ac(as 145/ac) plus not enough BG to adequately feed the LMB for good growth for the long term. Lots of CC stocked means lots of food is going to be needed to keep them growing quickly. Large CC are known to also eat small fish. If it were my pond I would have omitted the CC, stocked only 35-40LMB and used 600-800 CNBG in 0.7ac. I would start removing CC on a regular basis to try and get the numbers down to 10 to maybe 20. You will soon learn that it is a whole lot easier to add CC than to remove them.

JPS.
Pounds of food per mouth seems like a better comparison than lbs per acre.
Between LMB, SMB, HSB and CC combined, I stocked 80 per acre.
Along with that, the natural forage base is very diverse

Not a CC but this mouth got caught today. This gal was stocked at the same time as my CC. Only 130%
I only posted this photo because a well respected member likes to see healthy fish growth that he was involved with LOL

Great fish, Jason. Thanks for the eye candy.

Your comments on food per mouth is the point I am making. Your feed rate is low enough that it is contributing only a fraction of what the water is supporting through native nutrients. The density of fish in DPMESAs pond is too high to get similar results even with his additional feeding per acre. The best solution for DPMESA is to lower the density so there will be more food per mouth. His current higher rate of feeding is already helping him get more from his acreage, a lower density of fish will help each to eat more and grow better.

Thank you all for the great info. It seems like there are lots of opinions and some are much better than others. It seems like this group is pretty much "like minded" and the reputable company I purchased my fish from have a different opinion of how to stock a pond. My goal is not necessarily to have huge trophy fish of any specific type. It is more for enjoyment and to have my kids friends want to come over and spend time in the outdoors. On the other hand, I don't want my fish starving and skinny.

So far my biggest take away from this thread is to catch as many of the catfish as I can this summer. While I enjoy catching and eating catfish, it is much more fun to catch and watch the kids catch the BG and the LMB. They get so excited when they catch a LMB.

The things you can achieve in ponds (not lakes or reservoirs) with a feeding program are vast, and every pond is different, so no assumptions are concrete.

Regarding Channel Cats, my preferred stocking number is 10-15 in a .25 acre pond, so by my experience, you're not too far off that number. Nothing wrong with harvesting CC. Some other considerations are if your CC are spawning, and what size of CC you would need for future stockings to avoid predation by the LMB.

Because it seems like the one CC pictured in your original post may be on the thinner side, and the fact that you do have a feeding program, it may be a good idea to consider your forage base. Trying to amp up the bluegill population via favorable spawning sites and perhaps a size of grower feed would probably benefit your CC and LMB.

You may also want to consider a Golden Shiner Frye stocking which should be available in a few weeks.

JasonD How long was that porky LMB? I can't read the numbers on the measuring board. That is great impressive growth for that young lady. Keep feeding them and don't let them get too crowded or growth rate will noticeably slow down. With too many hogs per acre, they quickly run out of adequate sizes of food. I want to see how fast you can get these fast growing LMB to 5 lbs. Keep us updated and then I will put your fish growing experiences in the PBoss Q&A archive LMB growing section.

This one was 14.3” - 2.06#
As long as I’ve been catching and tracking my LMB, the shorter ones all look round like that.
The longer ones, not so much

Even though I have been advised not to this early on, anything under 110% has been taken out.
I’ve already got 2026 earmarked to thin the YOY

I keep get told, Patience- Patience - Patience. You’re only 18 months in to this project. 2 winters and 1 growing season.

Good water, adequate forage, low stocking rates. I just hope I can keep the progress going