Predator fish

[Tony G]

Hi everyone,

I just bought a house on an approximately 8 acre lake. It is a half mile long, skinny lake. It has some water around 25 feet deep towards the mid section and I would guess a lot of water 8 to 12 feet. The North end is under 6 foot deep with tons of weeds and pads. It seems to have a nice variation of water depths, many areas are shaded and I am told the water stays pretty cool in the summer.

I only had a couple opportunities to fish (Fall) as I was very busy with the new house before the freezing weather came along. I caught tons of small crappie (6" or less) shore casting from my backyard (this area has deep water within casting range). only caught a couple bluegill, but very small. I got my John boat out once and was able to catch 3 largemouths, very nice ones 2lbs - 3 lbs.

I am wondering if the panfish are stunted for some reason? The nice size bass should keep overpopulation in check? I am wondering if it could simply be genetics (should I catch big bulls elsewhere and transplant them). Should I consider stocking some type of minnow or baitfish that would multiply into a good forage base? Should a put a few Northen Pike in to keep population in better check? My primary goal is to achieve a good population of decent size panfish (bluegill, crappie, yellow perch).

[Bruce Condello]

In general, you will see either of two scenarios.

1. High density of "lean 'n' mean" largemouth bass with low relative weights and lengths in the 10-14 inch range. These water bodies will generally have lower density of bluegill, but the fish that survive will have high relative weigths and fast growth rates because of reduced competition.

2. Tons of smaller bluegill, with very few larger individuals, combined with low density largemouth bass, but good numbers of fish in the 2-4 pound range. In these situations, largemouth bass reproduction is limited because of massive competition with small bluegill for the bass young-of-the-year and lots of bluegill damaging nests or harassing nesting LMB. Consequently many bluegill survive, but can't grow well because of inter-species competition.

Sounds like you're closer to option #2

Here's the best solution.

Harvest every crappie you possibly can.

Harvest every bluegill you possibly can, until you start to see larger bluegill, then harvest females and release healthy males.

Consider stocking 4-6 inch LMB in good numbers if economically feasible.

Set up a feeder to boost bluegill growth rates.

Basically you want to put pressure on 1-4 inch bluegill with natural predators, and put pressure on any bluegill above that with angling, trapping, seining or any other tool at your disposal.

An evaluation must be made of intensive management vs. complete renovation.

Get on the Pond Boss website and ask the same question. You'll get a lot more answers than you can possibly get here. Many smarter people than me on the forum over there.

tASTYGILLS is right...Northern Pike are generally much more hassle than they're worth in smaller water bodies. You can stock them, but you'll get very low densities and very low angler return, and you will be less likely to get the desired response as you would be with manipulating the largemouth bass densities.