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Started By
Message
help with stocking pond
Posted on 6/14/17 at 9:35 am
Posted on 6/14/17 at 9:35 am
My dad just bought a piece of land on the northshore that he intends to build on sometime in the next year. There's a pond on the property that's about two acres. I'm not sure of the depth. We've fished it a couple of times, and there are a decent amount of perch, but only a few bass. Perch species have been mostly bluegill, redears, and a couple hybrid looking ones.
My dad wants to put coppernose bluegill and more bass in the pond, but I told him it may be tough because we don't have an accurate estimate of how much bass + perch are already in the pond. I was wondering if you guys could help me with a.) how much bass + coppernose we should buy, and b.) where I can get them close to Covington or Madisonville.
Thanks in advance
My dad wants to put coppernose bluegill and more bass in the pond, but I told him it may be tough because we don't have an accurate estimate of how much bass + perch are already in the pond. I was wondering if you guys could help me with a.) how much bass + coppernose we should buy, and b.) where I can get them close to Covington or Madisonville.
Thanks in advance
7
Posted on 6/14/17 at 10:47 am to atom1505
I would have a service come in and do an estimate on the population. They typically do the shock treatment, and will give you a good idea of the bass to bream ratio. Southern Pond Management is who my cousin used. Bonus if there are too many fish they will scoop them into an ice chest for you.
Posted on 6/14/17 at 10:58 am to atom1505
Like the other guy said you really need to know what's in there before you add anything else. The hybrid types you're seeing are likely green sunfish, and they can overpopulate a pond in a matter of months if there aren't enough predators to keep them in check. 95% of the time, if a pond is left alone for any amount of time it either gets overrun with small bass or small bream, and the ways to remedy either are complete opposites. Adding coppernose to a pond that's already overcrowded with bream will just lead to the starving and becoming stunted.
Your best option is to have an electrofishing survey done and go from there.
Your best option is to have an electrofishing survey done and go from there.
Posted on 6/14/17 at 11:02 am to TheDrunkenTigah
Fair enough. I guess I should add that we're really not that serious about it and not trying to grow trophy fish or spend a whole bunch of money. Just trying to increase the bass population if possible. Google tells me I should get about 100 bass per acre, so if I could find somewhere local where I could get a couple hundred bass for $250 or so, it'd be worth it just to see if it works.
Posted on 6/14/17 at 11:05 am to atom1505
Double post.
This post was edited on 6/14/17 at 11:05 am
Posted on 6/14/17 at 11:12 am to atom1505
quote:
Fair enough. I guess I should add that we're really not that serious about it and not trying to grow trophy fish or spend a whole bunch of money. Just trying to increase the bass population if possible. Google tells me I should get about 100 bass per acre, so if I could find somewhere local where I could get a couple hundred bass for $250 or so, it'd be worth it just to see if it works.
I hear you, I was mostly just trying to caution you against throwing more bream into a pond that already has too many. It would just be flushing money down the toilet. Same goes for adding bass fingerlings, if you don't know what size bass are in there. A couple dozen 12" bass will turn 200 3" fingerlings into $1.25 apiece snacks.
You may be much better off just stocking a few larger bass and letting them eat the bream down a bit until things balance out, but that depends on a few variables.
Posted on 6/14/17 at 11:15 am to TheDrunkenTigah
quote:
$1.25 apiece snacks.
I'd love to get a few larger bass to put in there, but other than going out and catching them then relocating them, I'm not sure how to go about doing that.
Posted on 6/14/17 at 11:19 am to atom1505
quote:
other than going out and catching them then relocating them, I'm not sure how to go about doing that
A lot of pond managers will cringe at the thought of doing this for various reasons, but in reality if you're not trying to create a trophy pond there's nothing wrong with it. In a two acre pond you won't need very many fish. That 100/ac number takes into account that even without bigger bass eating them, very few of the stocked bass fingerlings will make it to adulthood.
Posted on 6/14/17 at 11:23 am to atom1505
quote:
I'd love to get a few larger bass to put in there, but other than going out and catching them then relocating them, I'm not sure how to go about doing that.
Find a friend or neighbor that lives close to the land and bass fishes and ask them to drop some in the pond.
Posted on 6/14/17 at 11:52 am to wickowick
Love this threads.. I bass fish from boat and from shore and often wondered what the best strategy was for stocking ponds
A little OT - we have a camp in lower plaquemines parish, and back in the day we had a 75 gallon saltwater aquarium that matched the salinity of the water at the camp.. it was like a louisiana exhibit.. we had trout, reds, crabs, shrimp, minnows, oyster fish, etc etc.. when we'd go trawl, we'd keep all the little weird fish that we'd find and put them in a bucket.. the best part was all the fish were free
A little OT - we have a camp in lower plaquemines parish, and back in the day we had a 75 gallon saltwater aquarium that matched the salinity of the water at the camp.. it was like a louisiana exhibit.. we had trout, reds, crabs, shrimp, minnows, oyster fish, etc etc.. when we'd go trawl, we'd keep all the little weird fish that we'd find and put them in a bucket.. the best part was all the fish were free
Posted on 6/14/17 at 12:12 pm to atom1505
Posted on 6/14/17 at 1:16 pm to Riseupfromtherubble
I would definately not put anymore bream in there, you need to reduce their numbers and the bass will start to catch up naturally. Supplemental feeding will help and will also be a means to reduce bream population via cast net once they come up to feed.
As other have said stocking bass fingerlings will be difficult if you have a few larger bass in the pond already. check with your local feed store, they typically all will have a fish truck that comes by and you can see about getting some 4-6" fingerlings that will have a better chance at surviving along with some 1-3".
As other have said stocking bass fingerlings will be difficult if you have a few larger bass in the pond already. check with your local feed store, they typically all will have a fish truck that comes by and you can see about getting some 4-6" fingerlings that will have a better chance at surviving along with some 1-3".
Posted on 6/14/17 at 1:29 pm to atom1505
I don't know if it is still there but there was a fish hatchery on (of all places) Fish Hatchery Rd in Lacombe. That is pretty close to you.
Posted on 6/14/17 at 1:59 pm to PlanoPrivateer
I bought my fish from Dunn's fish farm, they stop at the old time feed store in GOnzales then make another stop at a feed store in Hammond. Looks like they'll be there next week.
LINK
LINK
Posted on 6/14/17 at 4:02 pm to TheDrunkenTigah
quote:
A couple dozen 12" bass will turn 200 3" fingerlings into $1.25 apiece snacks.
So will a hundred or so hungry bream. Those little suckers are vicious. If blugill were the size of bass, you would be able to enter the water in south Louisiana.
Posted on 6/14/17 at 5:05 pm to mdomingue
Bluegill are definitely putting a hurting on the bass fry in the pond, but they have too small of a mouth to go after a 3" bass. Green sunfish on the otherhand will happily snap up one that size. Thats why they're such a pain in the arse, they compete with bass for food and are predators for any bass under about 4".
Posted on 6/15/17 at 10:39 am to Tbooux
Ok so an update. I talked to Dunn's yesterday (thanks Tbooux). The lady told me that right now, they don't have any 4-6" bass, which is what she would advise I put in the pond. She said if I wanted until the fall, then stocked with about 150 4-6" fingerlings + pond fertilizer, that we should be able to start catching some decent sized ones (about a pound) towards the end of next summer.
She was really helpful, but she was really just telling me to wait until the fall because they didn't have any of that size in stock. If I could find some locally, I'd go ahead and do it now.
She was really helpful, but she was really just telling me to wait until the fall because they didn't have any of that size in stock. If I could find some locally, I'd go ahead and do it now.
Posted on 6/15/17 at 10:43 am to atom1505
quote:
help with stocking pond
Kill everything in pond, start over.
Posted on 6/15/17 at 11:27 am to atom1505
I bet GooDat and a couple of his buddies could go out there and slam dem bluegill and drop the population in a couple days.
...but seriously, find a few friends and friends with kids and go try to catch as many as you can. Feed them bread and cast net them if needed. You have to reduce the bluegill stock to have a healthy pond. Then make sure you have enough structure for the small fish to have cover.
...but seriously, find a few friends and friends with kids and go try to catch as many as you can. Feed them bread and cast net them if needed. You have to reduce the bluegill stock to have a healthy pond. Then make sure you have enough structure for the small fish to have cover.
This post was edited on 6/15/17 at 11:28 am
Posted on 6/15/17 at 11:52 am to atom1505
I think the biggest problem with ponds is a lack of bait fish and a lack of large predators to maintain healthy size and numbers of fish.
if your only predators are bass then you can thin those numbers out too much or not enough and create issues with lack of predation or lack of food source for big fish.
give thought to adding some gar fish if you don't have them, they are very hardy fish and live a long time and will help reduce overpopulation. also you never mentioned catfish, its good for a pond to have these in healthy numbers as well
you can do your own fish accessments without spending much to do it by putting out hoop nets and take out all the hybrids you catch.
I would do hoop nets first and see the numbers of what fish you are catching to see if you have as far as variety and species in there, you may have stuff you didn't even know about.
if your only predators are bass then you can thin those numbers out too much or not enough and create issues with lack of predation or lack of food source for big fish.
give thought to adding some gar fish if you don't have them, they are very hardy fish and live a long time and will help reduce overpopulation. also you never mentioned catfish, its good for a pond to have these in healthy numbers as well
you can do your own fish accessments without spending much to do it by putting out hoop nets and take out all the hybrids you catch.
I would do hoop nets first and see the numbers of what fish you are catching to see if you have as far as variety and species in there, you may have stuff you didn't even know about.
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