Your Pond

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Comment by dick tabbert on September 27, 2012 at 10:49pm

Sharon you still catching them branches.

Comment by 10.5" RES Sharon on September 27, 2012 at 8:27pm

Today's catch was a 15" bass, 10.5" RES, 4 bluegill, 1 GSF, and a 7' branch.

Comment by Walt Foreman on September 18, 2012 at 8:44am

I don't stock bullheads - don't have any interest in them.  I don't use Zetts' stocking plans, either.  For me they're just a good source for certain species that can't be readily had in a lot of areas otherwise.  One thing about them: they have two different hatcheries, one in PA and one in WVA, completely different facilities, and evidently they don't have anything to do with one another.  I'm not sure if the WVA hatchery sells pike, think actually that they don't; but I know the PA one does because I just got fifteen from them about three months ago.  If you just Google Zetts, the WVA one comes up first.  

Redear in larger sizes can be hard to source, but this hatchery is in OK and says they have 4-6" redear:

http://www.harbinfishfarm.com/products.html

They also have walleye up to 8-10", so they might be people to talk to.

Comment by Zach Pierce on September 18, 2012 at 6:44am

I had actually put some small Redears in both ponds before but if any fish were in there at all they probably got eaten. It is just hard to find any redears of size around here. I would think I need some at least 5-7 inches long, just in case there are some lonely bass in there.

How hard is it for LMB to spawn in turbid water?

I was going to run a project with drum in one of the ponds before I realized there were LMB in it. I am sure drum would not be able to successfully spawn in a pond since their eggs float but thought it would be neat to see what happened.

They are fun to catch and are not too bad to eat if prepared correctly and not from nasty water source.

Not sure if drum would take to feed or not, but I have caught one on just about any bait I have ever used so I do not see why they would not.

Again this is why I would like to get a net to sample those older ponds as well. As they would be virtually impossible to seine due to the muck and silt but a fkye net may work to some degree.

I sent Zett's an email to get some information on their pike so we will see what they say, wish there was a closer source so I could just drive up and get them, I think I can get walleye about 3-7 hours away but would probably take more of them and they would not be able to eat larger ones.

One thing I noticed is some of the stocking on Zett's seemed strange from what I have read. A lot of fish stocked and many show to add bullheads and different type of snails. Have you ever done this?

Comment by Walt Foreman on September 17, 2012 at 5:23pm

I don't have experience with fyke nets.  I bought a six-foot-long hoop net, which is similar, a few months ago, but have not used it yet.  

Cattle will definitely muddy a pond to some degree, but I have also seen many ponds that had cattle using them that had good water color to them - a one-acre pond I'm managing now is used by dozens of cattle daily and has a perfect green color.  I think the key is that it is deep enough that they can't use the entire pond, only certain areas.  Another one-acre pond that's used by a large herd of cattle, and which I have coppernose in presently to grow out for stocking into other ponds, has dingy water.  I fertilized it once a little over a year ago, last summer, and it made a huge positive difference for a couple months - I just stopped doing it because of money reasons, was already spread too thin with other ponds.  But judging from the impact one fertilization had, the pond would have had good water color had I kept it up.  So I would suggest fertilizing.  

Stocking shellcracker into one or both of those ponds would be a great idea.  As to trespassers, put up a couple game cameras,  then put up signs stating the area is under video surveillance and that violators will be prosecuted, and sued.  

If you got the water color good in both of them, you should be able to raise some very large shellcracker, and between the two ponds you would be able to keep a decent number for the table each year.  You could stock catfish in the pond that doesn't have bluegill (if I understand correctly that the one with crawfish does not), instead of bass, and they would do fine for controlling the shellcracker as long as you put in at least 100, which you would want to anyway if you're taking out some to eat.  They would still grow well on crawfish and small shellcracker - not as fast of course as with a feeder, but plenty fast enough to get to eating size.

Ponds with stunted bluegill usually are characterized by being able to catch a fish nearly every cast, so yes, if the pond you put 50 into is overpopulated, you would probably be able to tell it.  They may not have overpopulated it yet, especially if that's the pond that has the bass in it.  

Comment by Zach Pierce on September 17, 2012 at 4:16pm

They are small ponds as well maybe up to 1/2 an acre, may try to measure them out now that they are shallow and easy to walk around.

The turbid water I believe is caused from wind, cattle, muck. I do not know much about the ways to clear water you mention below but I would think that the cattle would be the largest obstacle on these two ponds.

I would make one of them a catfish pond since they are so dirty anyway but can not really put a feeder on these due to fears it may be either stolen or knocked in the water.

One pond actually is by the old hwy that ran through town years ago so very easy for pond jumpers to get in and fish. I think that is what happened to it as it was a good pond years ago according to my mother-in-law but I never really caught any until we pulled the 3 three pounders out this year. My daughter was catching crawfish on her pole there are so many in there.

I would think that if the pond was full of stunted BG or GSF they would be very easy to catch with a little piece of worm don't you think? Maybe I am more clueless then I think but I have fished many ponds that were loaded with BG that would hit the bait as soon as it hit the water. My 1/4 pond was like this 3 years ago not it is starting to end up like these, but I am aware that if I want larger BG this will be the case but then I expect to catch 100's of little 6inch bass in there place.

I have also considered the RES in either one of the ponds as I know they like both mussels and crawfish, we used to fish for them with crawfish. A local lake is full of them and a 90 year man told us about this gem of a lake for RES. The problem now is it has been sold what a shame.

But back to the RES in the ponds, is that since they are turbid I am sure they would not do well either but if I could source some larger ones I would put a few in just to see if they would make it.

Do you think I could make the 3 foot pond a bait pond and put in FHM, GSH, Gold Fish, GSF, or even bullheads assuming we want to fish with them. I had for it to just sit empty, I thought even maybe trying to raise freshwater prawns during the summer but I think they would all be eaten by critters and then again no way to get them out as that pond is full of muck and you can not walk in it.

Do you have any experience with fyke nets?

Comment by dick tabbert on September 17, 2012 at 3:19pm

Watch out on the bull heads not a good choice they will truly take over reproduce and after awhile be stunted.

Comment by Walt Foreman on September 17, 2012 at 3:17pm

You could clear the water with aluminum sulfate and hydrated lime.  Gypsum is also used at times to clear turbid water.  Sometimes simply fertilizing a pond a couple times will help the water clarity, and at the same time establish a bloom - I've done this before.  

Bluegill will still be able to spawn in turbid water - they'll just spawn shallower.  I've never seen a pond bluegill couldn't spawn in.  If you didn't stock bass along with them, you probably have a pond full of stunted bluegill now.

Once you have the water cleared in the pond with mussels, you could stock shellcracker and end up with some giants, as mussels are a favorite food of theirs - the new world record caught this past spring came from a lake (Havasu) that had a recent infestation of Zebra mussels.  Make sure to stock a few bass to control the redear reproduction.  I would stock nothing but redear (shellcracker) and bass in that pond.

Why not seine out the 1/4 acre pond and put those fish in the pond you stocked 50 bluegill into, and make that pond your table-fare pond?  You could load it up with predators like we had been discussing about the 1/4 acre one, to keep/get the bluegill in check, cull bluegill smaller than 7" aggressively (8" once they get to a bigger average size but 7" now), and still end up with a pretty good bluegill pond as long as you get enough predators in there.  

Five feet is deep enough to grow fish in, though it's risky simply due to what can happen to it in the event of a drought.  If either pond is only three feet deep, I wouldn't do anything with that pond until I had dug it out to 8' or more.  The entire pond doesn't have to be that deep - just need a couple deep holes for winter, and droughts (though in major droughts you would still be at risk to have some fish die). 

How big are these other two ponds?  The first thing I would do would be to get a more exact measurement on the depth if you're not sure.  

Comment by Zach Pierce on September 17, 2012 at 2:36pm

The other ponds are worse off than this one since they are extremely turbid and are only 3-5 feet deep. There are mussels in one of them, and the other is full of crawfish and I have pulled out 3 3pound plus bass from it. Not sure how they were that big as there are not very many of anything else in it, then again all of them probably should have went 5+ if they were healthy. When I brought the fish home, one had eaten a large crawfish, one had eaten a snake and the other one had 3 little green head turtles in is throat.

I did stocked some larger BG in one of the ponds to see if I could get them to take and I guess the turbid water has not allowed them to spawn. I would say I put 50 6-8 inch gills in the pond, I have the pictures of the fish in photos here stating I was stocking them.

Heck even the GSF can not even seem to make it in the pond.

If I like Bullheads and could put up a feeder that may be an option.  LOL

 

You have ideas for them?

Comment by Walt Foreman on September 17, 2012 at 2:20pm

What do you have in the other ponds?  You could seine out the bluegill from this pond and move them to another pond and use that one for your table-fare pond...Just a thought.  

Or, if you did start over and wanted to keep fish for the table from this pond, you could stock a little higher numbers of male-only bluegill, to account for keeping several each year, and then just add 50 or so new ones each year.  Just trying to help you figure it out.  

Stocking more predators would be the thing if you're not starting over.  

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