So all, thanks again for all of your help and suggestions. Myself and Ontario Smallies were up in the Great White North this past week and stocked an additional 150 LMB in the pond. We'll see how they've done in about a year or two. Sorry, but we don't have any pictures of the event.
As for the health of the pond, everything seems AOK. Ontario Smallies had stocked with a few hundred LMB 2 years ago (I believe he mentioned that in his previous post). We caught a few of them this year, which was a kick (about 10 or so). They weighed in a around 1 pound or so (about 10"+/-) and looked very healthy. From what we read, that seems to be a pretty good growth rate for LMB, so we're pretty happy on that score.
The SMB population looked good as well (ranging between 8"-18" plus some small guys), although we didn't catch quite as many in our honey holes as we had in years past, but did catch quite a few in some areas that we had previously not fished. I should mention that we did make our trip quite a bit later in the year (we usually had gone up in mid to late June) so there could be other reasons for that. We caught probably about 50 to 60 SMB over the week, maybe more. It's tough to judge when the numbers are high.
The Rock Bass (RB) population, it seems, has suffered a bit - we still caught a bunch, but not like we used to. RB historically had been the largest population in the pond, but it seems that Pumpkinseed sunfish (PS) has taken over as the most abundant species.
We had noticed the PS presence in the pond 2 years ago - and thought they were bluegills. After a little research, we've determined that they are indeed PS and they're all over the place in that pond. In some areas you put a red hook in the water and about 10-20 will get drawn in like filings to a magnet. We're fairly confident based on some of the columns we've read by Bob Lusk that their presence as forage is good and population level is ok for both the SMB and LMB, but any additional guidance on that would be appreciated. We were culling any PS we caught while we were there (not really that many - maybe a few dozen in 20 acres), but have determined that that probably isn't very bright - and we'll just leave them be next year and hope they make a lot of bass food for the LMB and SMB.
Didn't catch or even hook up with a NP this year. So that seems to be a non-issue for now.
Did catch a few yellow perch, so they're still around as well.
All in all, everything seemed good to me, but like I had mentioned previously, I'm no expert. If you guys have any comments or suggestions, let us know.
One thing I had talked over with Ontario Smallies was to make up some artificial reef structures and stick them in some of the deeper water (20' or so) that doesn't seem to hold many fish. Maybe some X-mas tree reefs or something similar. What do you think?
Macco
