I’m trying to get some info for the lake owner where I fish.
It’s about a 130 acre lake. Was completely reworked in 2013. Not regularly but has been raising what I think are shiners in a 1/2 acre pond above the lake and flushing them into the lake after a period of time. He’s looking to do this again but wondering if another forage would be better? Such as thread fins or maybe Talapia?
I can supply a lot more info if needed, trying to keep it short.
Thanks
Reading through the thread I think the one thing that would increase forage, especially for the large bass, is esshup's suggestion. But since there is a 1/2 forage pond, I'll add a couple of cents. The two fish I favor most to help you grow forage for the large bass are Moz. TP and BG. Of the two, I think I like the Moz. TP the most as I think they will provide the most leverage for that 130 acre lake the forage pond is supporting.
I like Moz TP better than BG for the same reason I like Moz TP better than shiners. They grow faster and will reach sizes that can benefit your large bass in the same year that they are dumped in.
I like Moz TP better than shiners for the same reason I like BG better than shiners. They reproduce fractionally and you can get multiple crops of forage in the same year.
Like BG, Moz TP can reach reproductive age in year 0. But unlike BG, Moz TP offspring of the first and possibly second cohort are nearly guaranteed to produce generations of their own (in a populated pond its very unlikely that age 0 BG can contribute to reproduction). This is powerful leverage especially because Moz TP die off each year. Each year, their niche is completely unoccupied by other large TP that are too large for your LMB to eat. Their fields are flush with food that they can eat but that BG cannot.
So that is why I think the greatest benefit will come from Moz TP. You can grow between 1500 to 3000 lbs of TP/acre without aeration per crop. In your forage pond, 1500 lbs of Moz TP in a single crop can be recovered in around 60 days from fertilization (of the TP eggs). Assuming all the adult females breed within the week of release, the forage would be ready in about in 70 days. To grow 1500 lbs (3000 lbs/acre) you would need 10 lbs of female which would produce around 40,000 eggs. At 75% survival, you would have 30,000 3 1/2" TP in about 70 days PROVIDED you added sufficient nutrition to support this weight of fish. So you're stocking the 130 acre lake with 11.5 lbs of Moz TP per acre (almost but not yet ready to reproduce). This isn't a great quantity of forage ... BUT ... it is more than you would be growing with either BG or shiners in the same span of time. Unlike BG or shiners, the Moz TP are going to reproduce in the same year, at least those that do not get eaten by LMB. Moz TP Males reach reproductive ages in a little over 110 days some perhaps sooner. The females will be having to discharge eggs until the Males are ready as they mature sooner. But by Day 120 post-fertilization the Moz TP forage you stock will be reproducing. If 25% of the females survive to this age, there would be 750 lbs of females surviving that could produce 3 million fry per cohort. Depending on weather, you could get two cohorts. But the first cohort should reach 3 to 4 inches by the time temperatures stop them growing. Very acceptable easy to capture forage for bass between 18 and 25 inches in length.
It's really a guess how many of the first stocking would survive to reproduce but if enough did, the forage pond could have a very meaningful impact on forage production by the end of the season.
