High school pond, potato chip bream make it almost un-fish-able...

[Gibbzilla]

I'm unsure if there's any true predators in the 75x20 yard pond. I caught one three pound largemouth out of it like 5 years ago, but that's it besides bream, warmouths, and huge freaking turtles. It's at my high school, so the pond isn't fed. I catch a ton of bream and warmouths the size of my pinky. Is there any way I can cut down the overcrowded bream population of this pond? I can't do a minor shoreline poisoning, since I mentioned it's my high school's pond. Is there anything aside from throwing these dinks out on the bank that I can do to help the bream-size of this pond? I also don't think it makes that much of a difference throwin these tiny ones out on the bank, since I'm guessing there's thousands of these things in there.

[john h]

get a cast net or soemthing and take a few hundred out and add some predators asap before the reproduce again in there is bout all you can do besides poisoning

[Gibbzilla]

How would I add predators if I don't own the pond?

[kc outdoorsman]

throw in some bass you catch and transport alive from another lake. they will love you for that!!! Then you will have a lot less bluegill!!! and big bass

[Gibbzilla]

throw in some bass you catch and transport alive from another lake. they will love you for that!!! Then you will have a lot less bluegill!!! and big bass

Would crappie suffice? I don't catch that many bass.

[CrappiePappy]

Would crappie suffice? I don't catch that many bass.

Crappie would only add to the trouble. And, adding ANY other fish might be illegal ... unless you had permission from the school.

Bass "might" decrease the population of stunted sunfish, but only if they were not removed from the pond. Channel Catfish or Flathead Catfish would be a viable alternative to Bass. But, they would have to be (legally) stocked in proportion to the size/capacity of the pond.
The problem stems from overpopulation & stunting, due to lack of a viable foodsource and/or predation (from a predator species, or angler removal). Throwing them out on the bank isn't much help ... and it could be viewed as "polluting" :D (dead fish will stink up the place). Leaving them on the bank may also invite certain "critters" (like racoons, skunks, possums) to come around ... and they can be destructive to school property, and create a nuisance or health hazard. Moving/transporting them to another place, like a creek or lake, may also be viewed as "illegally stocking".
Other than finding another place to fish, or getting permission to introduce a predator species (and waiting about a year for any tangible results) ... your best bet may be to find someone that will take these fingerlings/dinks and use them for bait (catfish angler, limb line or trot line angler). And, no ... you probably can't legally sell them to these people - depending on the regulations of your state, you may need a license to "sell" fish/bait.

......... cp

[Team M&M]

Just drop 20 catfish in there, and about a week later drop 20 more. If it were me, I'd drop a total of around 60 cats in there over a 2 month period of time. Then you have to wait a year or so, but the cats will begin to eat the smaller bream and breed on their own. In 2 years time your small bream population should stabilize.
Theres no way to get a quick fix on this. Its going to take some management and a couple of years.
Now, if this was a private pond, I'd get a cast net and take around 400-500 of the small bream out of the pond before I placed catfish in it. Or you could get a friend and use a seine net, We did this to a private pond we owned and in one day we managed to take 2400 fish out of the pond and just left the larger ones. It was a lot of work, but after a couple years we have the pond stabilized and now producing some nice large fish.

[nralover]

Just drop 20 catfish in there, and about a week later drop 20 more. If it were me, I'd drop a total of around 60 cats in there over a 2 month period of time. Then you have to wait a year or so, but the cats will begin to eat the smaller bream and breed on their own. In 2 years time your small bream population should stabilize.
Theres no way to get a quick fix on this. Its going to take some management and a couple of years.
Now, if this was a private pond, I'd get a cast net and take around 400-500 of the small bream out of the pond before I placed catfish in it. Or you could get a friend and use a seine net, We did this to a private pond we owned and in one day we managed to take 2400 fish out of the pond and just left the larger ones. It was a lot of work, but after a couple years we have the pond stabilized and now producing some nice large fish.

And then, when you are catching bluegill the size of dinner plates, invite us all over for a fish fry

[Rangersedge]

No offense, but I wouldn't put catfish in there. I certainly wouldn't put bullhead catfish there. Channels of a large enough size to be effective predators will likely go in the skillet. Flatheads / Blues would certainly do the trick and have been used. They show no mercy to the larger bluegill / bass either though once they become large enough. I think that largemouth or hybrid striped bass are your answer. For the cost and availability, I'd catch several largemouth bass 12 - 15" long and toss in there.

[Bowfin]

small brim make great catfish bait. Net a bunch out or spend an afternoon taking a kid to fish and pull a bucket full out of there, freeze them, and use them to catch some really nice sized fish elsewhere.