ive heard from a couple of co-workers that according to the farmers almnac that august is supost to be a wet month keeping my fingers crossed
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ive heard from a couple of co-workers that according to the farmers almnac that august is supost to be a wet month keeping my fingers crossed
I would not hold my breath on that one.
I completed an aeration installation today before it got too hot. The pond owner lost around 150 pounds of LMB that were around 3-5 pounds and quite a few big bluegill because of this oppressive heat. The pond was SW of Watonga in a canyon. When the installation was completed and the owner plugged in the blower the aeration released the hydrogen sulfide gas that was in solution. This told me that the pond was on its last legs and most of the fish were already dead. The gas was strong enough to make me nauseated and I was 30 yds away from the air boil. The two units that I installed will pump around 500,000 gallons of water ,collectively, per day and aerate it as well. In a weeks time the pond will start to show a turn around. I anticipate that in 8 days or less the contents of the pond will have passed thru the units. The owner was happy and he does not have to worry about losing any more fish. I will try to submit pictures soon.
Returning home I stopped at an installation that I made 3 Sundays ago just to see the progress. The water no longer looked like pea soup that you could cut witha knife. There was clarity that was not present before and I saw a school of 7 LMB cruising the shallows looking for lunch. The pond owner could also see the improvement in the overall health of the pond over the past couple of weeks. This pond is loaded with 8 - 9" bluegill and redear. This pond was within 3 days of having a fish kill of significant proportions. Another success story.
i have a hydrilla issue in my 3 to 5 acre pond it has been there for about two years now .last year seemed exceptionally bad i didnt due well fishing it last year either. i was hoping you could steer me in the right direction on getting it taken care of. i appreciate any input
I have been researching and i believe it is actually coontail.i dont know anything about it or if it is even bad any input would be great thanks. Jake
918- I have been out of town on a predator hunt for several days. Please give me a day to catch my breath and I will respond.
no problem thanks
918 - Google "chara" pronounced "Kara" and see if this might be what you are seeing. If its not chara then its coontail. Either way, tell me what it is and then I can give you your answer.
I have some of that (chara) in some ponds I fish....anyway to treat for it?
Depending how much is in there I would leave it be. If the coontail is waaaaaayyyyyy out of balance then stock some grass carp at 3/ acre and let them be for 2 years minimum and see what happens.
ya i think it is coon tail and there is carp present in the pond it is about 14 ft deep and between 3 -5 acres. i think the carp is the only reason why it has not taken over. it is all along the banks all the way around.
918 _ I expected that the plant would be present in the shallow water. If it is really causing a problem then add a few more grass carp. Please understand that the coontail is providing places for the fry to hide from predators. It is also providing a home for a variety of aquatic insects that feed the young fish so it is very beneficial to have it in your lake. Hope this helps.
i appreciate it the water clarity has increase dramatically since its came up and have many small fry.i am excited about the warm weather ready to catch some slabs. thanks again
Your welcome. The coontail is filtering the silt from the water.
CG, I thought that was what the coontail did also, for years. But I was surprised to learn last year that what the aquatic plants actually do, is change the chemistry in the water around them and it allows the sediment to drop out of the water.Quote:
Originally Posted by cricket george
I would've liked to have known more about how that happened, but could not find any more info.
Hey CG, I've got a pond I'm allowed to fish that has a LOT of perch and bluegill, and the bass have stunted in size. A 2 lb bass is a hawg there, and the crappie also seem to be stunted. There are no catfish to my knowledge. The pond is about 2 acres, and was a canyon, so about 18 feet deep at deepest, and last I checked is about 6 feet down from all the drought we had. What can I do to make increase the crappie and bass size? Is it possible the pond has too many fish in it? Water clarity is good, about 4 feet.
Also, I've seen plenty of minnows in it, and remember seeing crawdads in all the stomachs of the bass last time I cleaned one from there.
First off kill every crappie you catch. Throw them on the bank for the coons, just get rid of them. Remove 100 bass out of the lake regardless of size this year too. You may have to do this for 3 years. Are there any bluegill in the lake? This is a typical situation where a pond owner did not heed or ask for any help with his stocking program.The lake is out of balance. In the long run the best thing to do is poison it and start over and do not stock any crappie, period. I am managing a 10 acre lake and it has taken several years to bring it around where the bass are now doing well and the crappie are growing again.
Yes, bluegill are in the pond as well. At the risk of getting rebuked from you :) I happen to really like the crappie in there, I know it's small, but are there viable options to keeping crappie in? I've had some good days of crappie there with my best being me and a buddy catching 50 and several other days catching around 20 crappie and then usually about 20+ perch and small bass too on average. Also, are the large numbers of perch/bluegill not an issue here? I was guessing they were what was eating the food source up since they are what eats my lures mostly but I noticed you just said the remove crappie and 100 bass.
BP - The pond does not have enough fishing pressure. The pond is out of balance. The owner has to harvest fish in order for the remainder to grow. I feel sure that the crappie you are catching are white crappie and not black crappie. ODWC states that crappie should not be stocked in any pond under 10 acres. The 10 acre lake I am managing has black crappie in it not white crappie. I am also assuming that the bass you are catching are averaging 8 - 10 inches. The perch are the basic food source for the bass and therefore good. The lake needs to have, maybe, 500 crappie removed, 50 bass removed and 300 bluegill removed each year. Here is the underlying problem. Let us say that you did the previous reccommendation and removed all these fish. This years spawn replaced them. There is, temporarily, more room and therefore more food, but that is quickly consumed.Now what? You are back to where you started. The pond needs to have a large amount of fish removed in order to allow what is left to grow. A 5-10 pound flathead would help and he will start reducing all of the population. He will grow quickly with that smorgasbord. The more he grows the more he eats. I think by now you see the problem. I discussed your post with "Mr Farm Pond" expert with ODWC last night. His answer was to poison the pond and start over. You will never catch enough fish out of the pond,yourself, to get the problem resolved. I doubt the owner will allow a large number of people to fish the lake and keep the pressure on the lake for a sustained time which is what is needed.
My instructions on the 10 acre lake I manage are to remove 200 bass/year,regardless of size. I do not have the time to catch all these out myself. Last year approx 100 were removed, and the lake needs 300 this year removed. My persistence has helped and the original 12" bass have now grown to average 15". The 12" crappie are now around 14". This year I hope to see crappie averaging 15" If so I know my effort is working. Yes, these crappie are REALLY nice, but i am still returning most of them to the lake. I need to catch a few 6-8" crappie on every trip to give me an assurance that recruitment is happening.
I apologize for my rant,but every time I am asked about a pond or lake the underlying problem is: 1) no fishing pressure 2) insufficient pressure or 3) the owner did not ask for advise from ODWC about how to go about stocking their pond or lake. Remember I do not work for ODWC. I just listen and have been taught well. I hope I have helped you, answered your question and not offended you .
I went out on Saturday with a buddy and we kept 9 bass, didn't get a single crappie (I think the cold front had them turned off). We did catch 2 nicer bass on at 1'14 oz and the other at 2'5 oz. The biggest one had the build of a 5lb bass if that makes any sense. Very broad, fat belly (full of eggs), just a very muscular fish. Does that help at all? The rest of the bass were around a pound with some a little bigger. We caught about 4 perch also. I plan to try again tomorrow, hoping the warm weather has got the crappie active again.
I feel that the pond is still out of whack and your info strengthens my feeling.
The bass having the build it had leads me to think it probably belongs to the upper end of the size bass in the pond, I'll have a better idea when I hit it again tomorrow.
I would leave those larger bass and harvest those 8-12" bass. I would fish some small beetle spin or similar sized bait in solid black or white. There will be more of the smaller bass and they will readily hit anything that moves.
Exactly, the beetle spin will catch most anything in there, with weightless plastic worms being best for only bass due to the high grassy / slimy snags along the shoreline.