Time to revisit this... Funny what actually showed it's ugly face with the crawdads this summer.
Part of what I want to share as an observation here-in part-is in regards to the article Bill Cody wrote a few years back, "Growing the best smallies", which has become a bible for me as I refer back to that very frequently. What I'd like to share in particular is something I have continued to observe through this summer.
Early this year I did observe 2 monster batches of YP eggs that I left and a few batches of much smaller ribbons in which I removed. I fished some after the first of May and did catch some really nice YP, RES and quite a few SMB of different sizes.
I have not seen a single YP since the end of May but had a few days where I couldn't wet a line without a 4-7" SMB smacking it. I did catch several SMB from 11-14" so I started removing the SMB less than 7", which ended up being about 110 fish in June. 70 of those fish were picked up by the State of Kansas and utilized in another community lake stocking where we decided to try something different than the traditional LMB-BG situation. Our western regional director now considers me a bad influence on my regional Biologist but that's ok, it's outside the box thinking.
At my pond about a week or so after we moved the SMB I caught something in a fry net that was not easily recognized and I realized it was a SMB post larva. About 15-18mm size. what I wasn't seeing was any number of minnow fry-very few. Last summer as totally different in netting fry-literally thousands in 1 swoop of the net.. Not this year. So, as the summer has progressed, I've seen several of these small SMB, maybe 6-8 each time I've walked around the pond. Today I seen 5-6, and in 2 months they are still less than 2" long (the problem), which brings me back to Bill's article indicating the lack of available food tends to show up in what I am seeing. Why are my BGxRES and RES present from 1" up to 2.5" in really good numbers and appear healthy? Scads of GSH, the water is literally moving with life-insect larva, small inverts, other fish, etc.. WHAT-IS-Going-on?? I seen these small SMB last year but didn't see them for long because they grew-up to 8" by fall last year.
My Perch supplier also raises FHM and after catching and caging the SMB prior to transfer, I done some horse trading for 105lbs of FHM ….85lbs went into my pond, 20lbs went into 2 other newly filled ponds.
I can't find a FHM in a fry net, again.
I know a 2 month old 2" SMB indicates a problem but I can't manipulate forage anymore than I have. Removed over 400lbs of craws that obviously reproduced, small fish everywhere, culling high numbers of most numerous sizes of SMB to make room. Extensive aquatic habitat work that has produced about a 15% area of nursery for YOY.
What am I missing?
