Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Looking for thoughts on my new (old) pond

I’ve got a decades old, 1.6 acre artificial pond to the west of Buffalo. Maximum depth is ~10.5’, water temperatures get to 80° in August & I have no aeration. The pond is fed by a culvert off a tiny creek.

As the new owner, my goal for the pond is to produce >2 lb fish that are fun to catch & delicious. I think that means I’m leaning toward managing for BG.

Current stocking is a mixed bag. There are plenty of 6-8” BG & pumpkinseeds. They don’t seem skinny, but I don’t consider myself skilled enough to say otherwise. Thinking there were no LMB I stocked ~50 10-12” LMB 1-1/2 years ago. Turns out there were at least a couple of larger 20” LMB which I haven’t caught but observed last spring. They are definitely spawning. What else? I’ve got a number of 20-23” CCs, about ten 30” grass carp, and eight 24-30” koi. I’ve caught an occasional yellow perch.

My gut tells me that I need to reduce the grass carp & CCs. There’s no vegetation in the pond and the grass carp & catfish hoover up the feed I toss in. The koi are extremely wary… which is probably why they are still there despite the occasional visit from osprey & bald eagles. The koi are just muddy eye candy, but they’ll stay unless I can find out someone who wants them & I can catch them.

So what next? Should I cull the pumpkinseeds? Should I remove every sunfish I catch below a certain size? Should I eliminate ALL the grass carp?

Thanks. Let me know what other information would be helpful or that I should get for a well managed pond.

Welcome to Pond Boss, and congrats on your "new" pond!

There are multiple fish management experts (not me) on the forum that can help you reach your pond goals. The more info you give, the better advice they can give.

Are all of the CC roughly the same size? If so, that is probably good and indicates they are NOT spawning in your pond. (Which would add one more variable to your management operations.)

Some members like CC in their multi-species fisheries, others do not. Personally, I would probably try to start catching some of the CC. Those should be a good eating size, and also a fun size for kids to catch! If it turns out later that they were a net benefit, it would be easy for you to add some back into the pond.

How is your vegetation management in the pond? Your population of large grass carp will certainly eat and eliminate the plants that they find tasty. There are other plants that they generally won't touch. IMO, you have plenty of grass carp for a pond of that size. Maybe try to catch a few. Those are really fun for a kid to hook up!

Most of the people on the forum avoid putting koi in their ponds (that are mostly managed for fishing). When their food supplies get scarce, they tend to stir up the bottom sediments and make the pond murky. That affects the other fish in the pond and puts limits on the base of your food chain that starts with all of the photosynthesizing organisms.

I was an "outdoor" guy when I started on the forum, and never wanted to needlessly kill any type of wildlife. However, the management experts frequently recommend culling all of the undesirable fish and sometimes even nuking the whole pond. That philosophy went against my gut feelings, but I have learned that it can actually be the wiser choice. Conclusion: perhaps try to catch a few of the koi and give them away to people with more ornamental ponds?

I think your tastiest fish up there are your yellow perch. You can probably manage to have those be a bonus fish to catch beyond your main target of BG.

Finally, to manage your pond for large BG, you will have to manage your pond for your LMB. You will need the bass to keep down the population of small BG, so a significant proportion of your panfish population can be larger BG.

The pumpkinseed population is also an interesting question. They tend to be smaller than BG and not reproduce in as great of numbers. It might be nice to have them in the pond for the bass to eat and take some pressure off of the similar-sized BG, so more of those will eventually grow up to be large BG!

Good luck on your pond management efforts! Hopefully some of the experts will drop into your thread and give you some better advice.

My advice to you would be to try to answer any questions they ask, so they can better target their advice. Also, keep fishing the pond this spring and start keeping records! Read some of the archives about "relative weights". If you add notes to your post about the relative weight and length of each species of fish that you catch, that will provide a lot more useful information about your fish populations.

The CC are all 20-24” & I don’t think they’re spawning.
There’s very little vegetation in or around the pond. The grass carp are keeping it extremely clear. I think I could remove several without any impact

The reason I didn’t go with either YP or crappie was concern for over population & stunting. I’d love to have a pond loaded with 13-15” yellow perch, but that seems like a pipe dream.

Keep your LMB population having good numbers of 8"-13" bass and they will control the numbers of CC when their spawned individuals are small sizes of fry to 2". Your LMB prefer eating perch compared to BG as it is easier to swallow a shape of hot dog than a can lid shape. IMO try to reduce your Koi to around 4. Smoked carp/koi are very good tasting. Find a friend with a smoker. Use common carp baiting and fishing methods as shown on YouTube for catching koi. The grass carp are keeping weed growth to a minimum so bass can easily find and capture small fish. In a year or two add 2 more young grass carp to keep present young hungry weed eaters. If you can get one of the old grass out have it smoked or baked - excellent eating. Generally the more small bass the pond has the bigger the average sizes of panfish.

I expect that they spawn but not enough to meet your goals.

They go everywhere in a school. They are slow, easily picked off, and seldom reach maturity. I stocked about 200 four to six inch ones in a new pond about 20 years ago. Granddaughter caught the last one a month ago. It was close to 5 ft long.