Pond Boss Forums PHOTO GALLERY Image Gallery Results from Bob's Electrofishing Our Pond

All, here are some of the pictures from Monday when Bob Lusk came out to our pond and did an electrofishing survey of our pond.

The good news is that my forage looks great and the LMB we collected were all way over normal size, they all put a very big smile on Bob's face, the bad news is I do not have enough LMB. I either will have to stock more LMB this year or aggressively cull 10-14 inch LMB next year.

I also got some other great news, our pond has Golden Shiners and Creek Chub. Both of which Bob really liked, Both showed signs of spawning activity.

I'll post the video we took and the rest of the pictures as soon as I process them.

Thanks for sharing. Nice results.

You must have a permanent stream flowing into your pond if you are having creek chub reproduction. I suspect as the bass numbers grow, there won't be many creek chubs left as they are so easy for bass to feed on.

However, from looking at your photo, that isn't a creek chub but is actually either a western creek chubsucker or lake chubsucker... Too hard to tell which one it is for sure from just that photo. The 4 things that give it away are the mouth(smaller and down turned), the anal fin(long and rounded), the lack of a spot at the base of the dorsal fin and it no where near fusiform enough to be a creek chub. You can also see some of the tubercles on the anal fin in the photo, creek chubs don't get that either. A large male creek chub(the ones that get tubercles) would have a good bit or orange by this time of year around the head, this fish does not.

creek chubsucker
lake chubsucker
creek chub

Well, you have probably heard Bill Cody and I yammer on and on about what great forage chubsuckers make and you have them in your pond naturally! So congrats... Very neat you have wild GSH as well. The wild LES looks gorgeous as well. I was hoping you would catch a few "unusual" fish during your electroshock and you did. Very neat!

I was looking a little closer at the crappie which struck me as being black rather than white. Counting the dorsal spines, I come up with 7. That would indicate it is a black crappie as they have 7 or 8 dorsal spines while white crappies have 6 dorsal spines.

I concur with CJ the fish in the 4th picture is not a creek chub but very likely a chubsucker. I can't see it real well in the photo. CJ's sharp eye for fish ID caught it quickly. Breeding males with 3 or 4 large tubercles on each side of snout (Boschung and Mayden 2004). Creek chubs also have tubercles on the snout, but creek chubs have more tubercles than chubsuckers. How many of them were caught electrofishing? Chubsuckers often occur in loose schools and several may have been 'shocked up'.

CJ and Bill, I apologize, The fourth picture is a Creek Chubsucker. I misspoke, I did not realize that there was a difference between a Creek Chub and a Creek Chubsucker, sorry. About that Crappie, it is a White River Black Crappie, Bob was sure.


Here is a link to my Google Plus album for the day:

Electrofishing 2012

It has lots more pictures from the day including several other views of that White River Black Crappie. I learned a lot, Bob was great and by the way, the other guy on the bow was Scott Tucker. Scott is Australian, and he get great props for coming out and helping after a 14 hour Quantas flight to DFW!

Scott, thanks again for the help, I hope you had an enjoyable time working on our pond.

Last but not least, Bob's grandsons had a cameo and did some great work behind the cameras, thanks guys!

Awesome stuff! Thanks again for documenting and sharing...

I saw the following species:

1)golden shiner
2)mosquitofish
3)lake chubsucker
4)longear sunfish
5)bluegill
6)redear sunfish
7)black crappie
8)largemouth bass
9)channel catfish
10)black(maybe brown) bullhead

Great diversity!

Scotty is in town? Hide the beer.

Ditto! He's a great guy. Greg Grimes, Kelly Duffy, Scotty and I roomed together for the last conference.

Man what a beautiful lake!

CJ, I also have FHM, CNBG, and topminnows as well.

Spinnerbait, Thanks, I have a lot of help. It is a work in progress, and I love the work. I have made a lot of mistakes, and a few right decisions! I am also fortunate to have such good neighbors and friends!

Finally finding PondBoss didn't hurt either!

Hey Brian, you left out the best part ....
Tell them that were introduced to the manly art of fly fishing by catching a Overton Texas Strain pure Florida genetics CNBG on a fly rod from Glazener pond!

So you two DID get together. Great!!

Yea, I got to George's place tuesday and man did I get a lesson or two! I had a blast! Now I have to convince the boss to let me get a fly rod! I think lesson number two will be how to cast behind trees!

George's CNBG are spectacular. I cried when as he was getting rid of several "runts of the litter." They were better than any of my CNBG. I am going to have to get a tank and aeration stone and try to get some of those runts the next time I am out his way!!

I can't believe how much I still have not learned about ponds and fish, I got a feeling this is going to be a life long quest!

Brian, it really never ends. At one point, I figured that I knew a lot about ponds. However, the more I learned, the more I recognized my ignorance and how much I still had to learn.

Those are my favorite CNBG !!

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i263/ewestmnw/starmay2010006.jpg

George's CCNBG are very nice, I hope to add some of them to my pond, I can't wait. I think it is time to get the little pond going as a grow out pond. Also, Today I get to pickup my first bags of aquamax. I went with 500 for now to add some weight to my forage fish to try to help bring up my bass numbers.

Also, today I get my second lesson on fly fishing! This time on our pond. I'll post some pictures if they aren't too embarrassing. It has been a big week

Are you going to mix any 500 and 600 together? Your fish are about the same size as mine. I love watching the bass eat the aquamax.

I took my 3 yr old granddaughter fishing today and she caught one bass about a pound and it looked really good.

Spinner, I am only trying to feed my BG. I have great numbers of BG but Bob wants me to feed them because of the LMB population explosion he is expecting in our pond this year. Further, my LMB are not feed trained, so trying to feed them would not do me any good.

I also know that my CC will readily eat the Aquamax and that is okay, We are planning on several catfish frys this summer and a little more weight on them wont hurt!

If in the future I see my BG getting bigger and 600 might help them, I may add it into the mix, but for now, 500 seems about right for our pond.

About our bass, Bob tells me that the ones we caught during the survey were all 30% over normal which might seem good, but that also tells him that I dont have enough bass to even things out. I caught another bass yesterday who was not tagged, but before I could land him, we was pardoned....

I like the pics! Brian,you have a beautiful place, I def. will follow your progress, so keep us posted. You started me thinking about the flyrod so I broke it out today and had a great evening catching BG.

Spinnerbait, that is great! another flyrod re-recruit! We may need to add a flyrod section if the trend continues!

I'lll keep posting, no problem there. The one thing I can say is that it seems to me that right before I have a problem, the good Lord lets me meet the right person to help me through. I have had a lot of problems, but I have also had a great deal of help. I think sharing my story is just part of the process and part of the payback and I am loving it.

My pond is filling nicely now that we are getting some rain and I can't wait to post a picture of full pool! Then I can get to work on the dam vegetation. As soon as we can, we are going to add topsoil to get the grass going. When we do that, we are going to clean up around the little pond,

My possible hydro-electric project will be after that. The list goes on and on...