Question

I have access to a beautiful lake, actually a old rock quarry, its spring fed, and the bottom is clearly visable in 20 feet of water. Its probably 5 to 7 acres with the deepest part being about 50 ft. Actually, there is little water that is shallow, less than a acre I'd say.

Question is, would threadfin shad survive and reproduce in that enviroment? I'm looking for a bait fish that provide food for the gamefish without constant restocking. The lake has been stocked with Catfish, largemouth bass and crappie, a 30 pound blue was caught there this past summer...I hgave caught bass upwards of 8 pounds and have this winter added a lil over 200 crappie in the 1/2 to 2 pound range.

What do you think on the shad?

We have a spring fed pond we have stocked it is clear we put a couple dozen shinner minnows and black heads each year seems to help.We also put some small bream in each spring and try to keep them fed but the cost of fish feed is getting kind of high!!!

Probably do best to use minnows to stock and fertilize the lake. Adding bamboo or other cover would help on the shallows. Check the PH and adjust if needed. If you do Shad they will need algae to feed so do the fertilzing first.

Don't have a good source of bamboo.What do you think about old tires or pallets for cover?

Don't have a good source of bamboo.What do you think about old tires or pallets for cover? Sorry X-ring did not mean to hyjack thread!!!!

Minnows would probably survive best.

She, (sister) has been buying minnows for several years, they don't seem to reproduce, if they do the bass, bream, catfish eat them all in short order, and she buys lots of minnows,,by the pounds...Was looking for something that would reproduce in amounts to feed the hungry masses,,yet survive.

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Originally Posted by xring

She, (sister) has been buying minnows for several years, they don't seem to reproduce, if they do the bass, bream, catfish eat them all in short order, and she buys lots of minnows,,by the pounds...Was looking for something that would reproduce in amounts to feed the hungry masses,,yet survive.

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Need food and cover to raise bait fish.

They have used the loader bucket to push several trees in,,its vertical bluffs on 90% of the shoreline, also the rocks have a green looking alge coating them in water to at least 20' deep..you can see it at that depth. They were running cattle on the property until last year, they sold out..the cattle drank from the quarry and of course dumped in it, I assume thats what started the green alge???

Xring - I am not sure like Nimrod. I might need to take a look at it. HAHA

I noticed that it is 90% vertical shoreline. Does it have any water in the 2 - 3 foot range? If it does, you could put out some bedding matts like the minnow farmers use for the minnows to spawn on. The area would have to be fenced off so adult fish(bass, bluegill and crappie) can't get into it. It doesn't take a whole lot of spawning to get a lot of minnows. I have access to some bedding matts if you'd like to try it. Nimrod is right. If the water is gin clear it needs to be fertilized to create an algae bloom in the water so the shiner minnows have something to eat. As far as the green slime on the rocks is concerned, you could put a few grass carp in. Not many. No more than 10, at most. It will take time for them to clean up all the slimy stuff. Be glad to assist if I can.

Sounds like all the fish need to be removed and the minners started first and then restocked. I will graciously assist in the removal of such fish for a nominal one time fee. This fee will also include additional removal of fish in the future if needed.

We used to have catfish ponds. Threadfin shad were desirable for forage but would die off in winter. (one sites say 45 degrees but probably even above that would cause losses.) If the springs are warm water that may keep the temp at safe level for shad.

Thanks a lot guys,,lots to consider..I'll talk to sister and see just how much they want to get into on the lake. I'll let ya'll know soon..Thanks again for all the input! Its appreciated.

Sounds like a neat pond. I had some more comments but it appears I missed the 2nd page and they were well covered there.
JBJ

Don i should be able to tell you more after fishing it a couple of times. I need to get a feel of the enviorment first... then i can tell you weather a shad or minnow works best. LOL