Thread: Pond Mgmt 101

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.

Originally Posted by cricket george

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.

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 .