OK, so it appears the problem has gotten worse.
In addition to the swarm of 3"-5" bullheads that I've got. It looks like a Mommy and Daddy got busy again. Yesterday when I was feeding was the first time I've seen these fry balls, but there's a bunch of them in it.
It also appears that some of my pre-stock bream have spawned, as there are many more 3/4"-1" Bluegill, Pumpkinseed, and RES that I've been seeing recently.
I will say that all of the fish seem to be growing very well at this time. A number of the bass have grown 1"-3" inches and many of the channel cats have gone from 4" to 7" in less than 2 months. The panfish are growing very fast, as well. I've started adding mealworms and soldier fly larva to my Sportsman's Choice Trophy Fish feed and the bass are now eating those, and some of the feed, and the bream and channel catfish love what they can get before the black clouds sweep in and eat everything.
I really don't want my pond to become overstocked and have any of the preferred fish become stunted because of these bullheads.
Any recommendations on what I should do? If they were big enough to catch with rod and reel, I'd be happy to catch as many as I could and have weekly fish frys. For bullheads, they do seem to be very clean, and when I've caught them in clean water in the past, they usually taste pretty good. I'm guessing that the small ones are too small to catch in any kind of net or trap, but I might be able to eliminate the larger ones that way. Can someone tell me what type of trap or net to use? The 2"-4" Bullheads will literally follow me around the side of the pond that I feed from, and they swarm over the food and eat every scrap that they can find, so I wonder if the bluegill and bass are getting enough. I've tried to catch some of the bullheads with a pole net, but they got savvy after the first few times.
Anyone been through this before? Any advice that you can give would be a huge help.
Fry Ball:
