If your small fish or stocked fatheads disappear fast, then there might be too many predators in the pond. How many fish do you harvest out of the pond each year (and what size /species are they)?
Rough rule of thumb is 20% of the pond surface area should be cover for the fish to utilize, mixed between shallow and deep water.
20%??
Good Lord we have our work cut out for us. We're working on new structure now.
We haven't fished our pond yet which is odd with how much I enjoy fishing. We just keep throwing in more fish and feeding them. In hindsight, not the best plan.
We were over populated with bluegill so last year we added:
- 10 hybrid striped bass
- 200 silver channel catfish
- 100 Zetts Oswego LM bass
- 200 mix brown, brook and rainbow trout
- 100 crappie
- 200 breeder shiners
A few years ago we added about 10 chain pickerel but rarely see them and they didn't do much to control the BG population. Also had suckers, perch, LM bass and shiners(some are 8" now).
Last year it seemed the bass took over the pond. The 4-5 year old LM are highly aggressive and striking anything and everything. The hybrid and Oswego bass fingerlings we added showed tremendous growth after just one season(2-4x growth). Bluegill population seems down by around 80-90%.
I think the only thing that can save us is adding a lot more habitat to the shallows.
