Has anyone ever tried spotted gar in their pond as a means to control overpopulation and stunting of the preferred gamefish?
Likewise, would the gar be effective in a crappie pond. It would be nice if the gar would decimate the population of small crappie, but leave the larger crappie alone. I think the key here would be a good food source for the crappie. Would it be possible to have an ongoing population of some smaller forage (Gambusia?), that is too small to be targeted by the gars, but an abundant food source for the crappie? It might be much easier to keep an abundant minnow/shiner population - if there are no small crappie consuming a portion of that limited resource.
What are your thoughts on the ability of gar to successfully spawn in a pond? This of course can influence the outcome. Small gar would compete with the crappie for minnows, for example. A small crappie is a joy to clean but a small gar .... maybe not so much. Ideally, I think you might hope for no reproduction but I couldn't venture a guess as to whether they would. Big gar would thin their own kind I am sure so maybe reproduction isn't an issue.
I have no idea if the gar will reproduce in a pond. (I was hoping you guys would tell me!!!)
When there were about 50 in our creek pool, there were clearly two distinct sizes. I thought it was two different species of gar, but both sizes were definitely spotted gar. I think they were females (larger) and males (smaller). If I do try gar as a predator, I will try for a single-sex population. That way I will only have a single variable to monitor for that predator. (If I see little gar in year 2 or 3, then I will also determine that I am not capable of correctly determining the sex of a gar!)
If I can get a single-sex gar pond, then I think it would be awesome if they preyed heavily on a small size class and left the larger. That also might be good for a trophy BG pond.
I do have lots of forage species in the creek. I need to get busy trapping next spring. I will definitely need some help with proper identifications. Hopefully, I have a few species that will also be suitable to ponds. I am pretty sure I have Red Shiners.
I guess I need to try this experiment and report positive and negative results back to the forum.
