So a few updates on this project.
1) I've gone away from the trap/fyke net for now as it was just too much work for the amount of fish I'd trap. I've gone back to using the seine and found a much better method of using it. By that, I've added a feeder toward the tailwaters of my pond. This attracts and concentrates the fish to that area, which makes it a much shorter pull, without as many snags to mess up the net as we pull. The first time we did this we seined over 400 fish. Great for evaluation and population adjustments. Amazingly, we caught nearly 200 of the 350 blue cats we had stocked. So its apparent they are drawn to the feeder.
2) In years past, I've gone thru about 1500 lbs of 32% protein catfish feed. That seems like a bunch, but apparently for a 15 acre pond of catfish that's not all that much, and its probably about as far as I wanna push my budget (wife) for now. And my poor relative weights (RW) reflected such. I haven't kept good tabs on RW, but on my channel cats they've certainly not been above 100. My blue cats seem to be quite a bit higher though. Which I am pleased with, yet don't quite understand. Maybe they are preying on the small crappie and carp better? Not sure. Anyway, in the last 2 weeks I've stumbled across an idea that I've began to implement. My cousins own a commercial trout farm about 4 miles down the road in which they have about 60-70lbs of cleanings (heads and spinal/belly flesh) leftover each week. I've had them freeze those cleanings and I cast them off my dock about 4-5 days per week. Not the best of chores, but its free and I'd hope a much higher protein food source. We will have access to these trout for 50 weeks of the year, which will come out to nearly 3000lbs of trout remains. They seem to take to it well as we catch fish rather quickly if we put a trout head on a hook. Not sure how it'll impact my fishery, but will eval as I go and any insight from this forum would be appreciated.
So...... long story short, with my goals of creating a trophy catfishery and minimizing the carp population, I'm hoping to reduce my number of small catfish and other undesirable fish thru seining, creating less food competition for the large fish. I'm also hoping to improve and increase the food intake for these large fish by continuing with catfish food and supplementing their diet (if you wanna call it that) by adding 3000lbs per year of trout cleanings.
Any suggestions, cautions or additions are appreciated. Thanks.
