Pond Mgmt 101

Patti - You should stock adult bluegill preferably, that way they have a chance of not getting eaten. A bluegill adult will be the size of your hand. If you have not caught any bluegill by now in your pond then most likely you do not have any in the pond. Do you have any friends that have a pond that you could go and catch some from?
The full moon is on the 7th of July. If you can get permission to fish someones pond this weekend try to catch some and keep them alive in a big bucket. Do you have a battery powered aerator that you could add to the bucket? I would try to catch at least 6 pairs or 10 pairs would be better and keep them alive. They may spawn this summer and you will be on your way to better fishing. Let me know if I can be of any help.

OOOPS, I forgot. Patti - google Memphis Net and Twine Co and go online and order a turtler trap or shoot them with a shotgun if you can. It sounds like they may be a nuiscance and need thinning. By all means get some bluegills stocked in your pond. I am too far away to give you bluegills to stock.

Thanks, I will try to find some.
Patti

The normal pond stockings are LM bass, bluegill, and channel catfish. Has anyone ever wondered why other fish are not stocked in ponds? Remember the cost to produce a 1 pound LM bass was 8 to 9 pounds of minnows. Well an impoundment needs to be able to produce in excess of 14 pounds of forage to produce a 1 pound striper, hybrid striper etc. Plus the environmental conditions are not right for their reproduction. This is why these fish are only stocked in large impoundments that can produce a larger amount of forage.


Does anyone have any questions that they may want answered?

Has anyone ever asked themselves the question " What should we stock in our new pond"? What is the easiest specie to manage? Hmmmm I bet no one has ever asked that question. What is the easiest? A single specie pond. HUH!
The easiest is to stock 1 specie and feed them such as channel cat. Many people have done this. Stocking bluegill and feeding them works well too. In both cases this is easy and the fish grow big quickly. Bass is not a good one to try because bass do not readily come up for floating feed like bluegill or channel cat.
The more species that you stock the harder it is to manage.

Just thought some one might be interested in that.

Cricket.my Neighbor Was Talked Into Adding A Windmill To His Pond That Produces Oxygen To The Water When The Wind Blows. Before It Was Added You Could Almost See The Bottom Of The Pond. Now There Is So Much Algae Or Greenery In The Pond That It Is Hard To Fish. Do You Think The Windmill Messed His Pond Up Or Something Else? 2-4 Acre Pond Max Depth 10ft. ALSO, I AM THINKING OF BUILDING A POND IN MY FIELDS THAT HAVE TWO FEEDER CREEKS THAT RUN THROUGH THEM. THE POND WOULD BE LESS THAN 2 1/2 ACRES. HOW DEEP SHOULD THE DEEPEST END BE AND SHOULD IT BE DEEPER NEAR THE FEEDER CREEKS? THANKS

BC2 - I am familiar with the windmills that are added to the wastewater lagoons and I have never been impressed with their performance. The claims sound good but the performance has been poor. In my opinion, your friends pond is a victim of aging and a build up of organic matter from leaf litter blowing in the pond in the fall as well as fertilizer runoff. The fertilizer could be from granular form or cattle that have access to the pond for drinking and then poop or pee. This is a classic problem. The warm water period from early Spring to early Fall has several stages. Each stage has different types of algae that may appear for a while then the water temperature rises causing that type of algae to disappear. The years pass and the nutrient loading steadily grows causing more pronounced algae blooms. The pond is just aging. What can I do to correct or reverse the trend??? Drain the pond, dry it, and doze out the black septic organic sludge. OOOHHH Dear I dont want to do that. It will cost money. That's right it will. You can purchase some algaecides that will color the water and kill the algae but you are just treating the symptoms NOT the problem.

Now YOUR pond - I would suggest that you dig the pond deep enough so that you have at least 15 feet at the normal water line. Remember that as the pond ages the sediment will wash in with every rain and your upper end will become shallower. If you dig the pond deeper in the upper end it will catch more sediment. You need a minimum of a 3:1 slope on the banks to alleviate much shoreline plant growth. I would also suggest you add some pea size gravel in a protected area for spawning habitat for sunfish and bass. I would make a submerged hump somewhere in an area where you will always know where it is. I added brushpiles in my pond and laid the trees so that a plastic worm would not readily hang up. I also deepened the creek channel in the upper end.

Fish stocking - The Oklahoma Dept of Wildlife fisheries biologists do NOT suggest that you stock any crappie in an impoundment under 10 surface acres. I would suggest you stock some coppernose bluegill ( contact your state fisheries biologists) because they grow faster,bigger, reproduce more, and are more agressive on hitting lures and bait. Of course, stock LM bass and some channel cat to clean the pond. If you stock redear sunfish then be sure to stock some snails. The snails eat the sludge and they are T bone steak to the redear.

If you have any more questions let me know.:)

Thanks Cricket! I Am Going To Let My Neighbor Read This And Thanks For Your Valuable Knowledge On This Matter.

Cricket George, Is it a good idea to get the sludge out every once in a while. A man that lives down the road from me has a huge machine with a claw type bucket machine. (Have no idea what it is called.) I have seen him take huge clumps of mud and gunk from his pond. Is that helpful or harmful?

Also, is it good or bad to have a tree on the pond bank? We have a 5' pecan tree growing on the bank about a foot from the water. Do we get rid of it? We have no other shade near the pond. 4 trees are about 25 feet away.

Thanks
Patti

Patti - Your neighbor probably has a backhoe and he is periodically removing some sludge. What he is doing is fine but he will only get some of it as he probably cannot reach all the way across the pond.

Your pecan tree on the pond bank is fine as are the other trees. Don't worry about them.

Did you go and catch any bluegill to stock in your pond yet?????????