pond-#2-july-26

Comment

Comment by Walt Foreman on July 30, 2012 at 7:21pm

Thanks, Leo.  The owner is very appreciative - even makes people he's been friends with for much longer than me, call me to ask permission to fish, knowing I will say no.  All of his ponds were covered with either duckweed or watermeal when I started working with them three years ago, and the bluegill were morbidly stunted in the ponds that had fish and none of the ponds had any predators such as bass etc. left over.  So they've come a long way.

Comment by Leo Nguyen on July 30, 2012 at 5:14pm

Looks like you're doing a splendid job in keeping this pond extremely productive under  hellish criteria. They better give you fireworks and glowing recommendation as pond management specialist.

Comment by Walt Foreman on July 30, 2012 at 10:59am

Tilapia are a great idea for bass ponds, because they really ramp up the amount of forage.  It just bugs me that there are tilapia dealers out there who claim tilapia are also great for bluegill ponds, and that's simply misleading.  You made the right choice - believe me.  If ever there were a pond that they could have helped bluegill in, it was this one.  

Before I stocked the tilapia, any time I walked up to the feeder to refill it I could count on seeing a couple dozen or more coppernose in the 9-10"+ range; the smallest coppernose I was seeing were seven and eight inchers.  Now when I walk up to the feeder I see a hundred or more tilapia staring at me.  There are still a few bluegill but they're mostly much smaller ones - the tilapia have crowded the big coppernose away from the feeder, have basically taken it over.  

I think dye makes a lot more sense in northern ponds that are subject to winterkill.  A lot less so in the South, though some people still use it when they could be turbo-charging their foodchains with fertilizer.

Comment by Tony Livingston on July 30, 2012 at 9:10am

I hear you on the Tilapia. I came real close to pulling the trigger on some for the HBG pond, which may have actually worked due to the limited reproduction of the hybrids, but in the end I just couldn't justify adding to the biomass of an already heavily pushed BOW.  Factor in the enevitable winterkill, and I went another route. On the other hand, Whitecap worked wonders for us, it's been almost 18 months now since the application and we're still weed-free, aside from a little FA. BUT... we didn't have a watermeal problem, either! That stuff is vicious!

I would be much more inclined to try the Tilapia in a pond where the emphasis was on growing out the Bass, I don't have a problem with applying a little Cutrine for the algae, AND....this is going to sound unusual.......I tried Aquashade this year, and loved it! It really held the FA down, and I haven't noticed our fish suffering from any possible disruption in natural forage.

Comment by Walt Foreman on July 30, 2012 at 8:14am

There is aeration on this pond, three diffusers spread out over the length of the approximately one-acre pond (the pond is long and narrow).  There are also tilapia, which I will stock again (that is, in a pond I'm managing for big bluegill) when hell becomes a skating rink.  I put 60 lbs. of tilapia in the last week of May, against my better judgment, just because the pond was nearly completely covered with watermeal and I had already spent nearly $800 on herbicide with no effect and didn't have another $800 or more to spend.  The tilapia have made a slight dent in the watermeal, basically have kept it from covering every inch of the pond from top to bottom...but it's still pretty bad, so much so that the third day of Federico's trip we couldn't effectively fish the pond because the wind had not helped us like it did two days before and the areas where the fish were were covered.  Not to mention, we could hardly fish for bluegill for catching tilapia, and even worse, we caught three or four very small (under 4") coppernose for every large one we caught - the tilapia have allowed the coppernose to spawn too effectively.  I had thought that perhaps there might be some circumstances under which they could work in a bluegill pond; this particular pond I had thought to be devoid of fish when I stocked coppernose a year ago, but it turns out there are hundreds of stunted crappie from a handful the owner's son stocked a few years ago; I thought the crappie might keep the coppernose from overpopulating like bluegill normally do when tilapia are stocked, but it didn't happen.  The crappie (along with the Florida bass I stocked May 2011) did a great job of controlling coppernose reproduction last year, pre-tilapia.  This year, not so much.

I was actually expecting to catch multiple coppernose well over a pound out of this pond, considering we caught at least half a dozen in the pound range in March and they were growing like gangbusters then.  I don't know whether the tilapia have slowed their growth, or we just couldn't catch the big ones for the tilapia and small bluegill taking our bait...Moral of the story: anybody wanting big bluegill, don't stock tilapia.  

Comment by Tony Livingston on July 30, 2012 at 7:14am

I thought the clarity looked a little thick Walt, but I know you're on top of it. Is there aeration in this pond? The weather we've had up here this summer has kept me a little on the nervous side.............. I've been taking secchi readings daily!

Comment by federico del toro on July 30, 2012 at 6:31am

Yep another chunk, this copper nose bluegill are the best looking fish I have ever seen

Comment by Walt Foreman on July 29, 2012 at 8:33pm

Yes, Dick, I manage this one.  It has only been stocked for one year - this is the pond I stocked with 250 coppernose from 3" to just over 6" in March 2011, and then stocked with several hundred coppernose fingerlings in May 2011.  So they're growing pretty well.  The big coppernose I posted photos of in April came from this pond.  

Tony, it is definitely fertile - too much so.  It's an old phosphate pit, and has trees lining the bank all the way around it so it gets a lot of dead leaves falling into the water every fall, meaning there's a great deal of muck built up on the pond bottom (over many years since it was formed by TVA mining in the 1930's and '40's).  Watermeal is a major battle in this pond - I put nearly $800 worth of Whitecap into it, two separate applications of 24 oz. each time, about a month apart back in April and May, and as you can see, it didn't have much effect.  I've heard that Whitecap has been discontinued due to quality control issues - manufactured in China - I'm going to try Sonar Genesis next spring instead.  

Comment by Tony Livingston on July 29, 2012 at 7:52pm

That water definitely looks fertile...

Comment by dick tabbert on July 29, 2012 at 7:18pm

Nice solid Gill Walt, that one of your ponds.

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