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Thread: SURPRISE CATCH!

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    Default SURPRISE CATCH!


    Lake is 5 ac and new( one year and not full) and stocked with black crappie, coppernose and and unwanted large mouth bass (for now)
    W as messing around catching some fish to see their progress and growth rate and I noticed a small area of swirling going on like white bass will do in open water, cast a small spinnerbait and hooked up with a crappie (5-6"). Do they work open water like that or was it a fluke thing ?

    Pat W

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    Quote Originally Posted by Pgwilliamson View Post
    Lake is 5 ac and new( one year and not full) and stocked with black crappie, coppernose and and unwanted large mouth bass (for now)
    W as messing around catching some fish to see their progress and growth rate and I noticed a small area of swirling going on like white bass will do in open water, cast a small spinnerbait and hooked up with a crappie (5-6"). Do they work open water like that or was it a fluke thing ?

    Pat W
    I have seen them do that on a small lake (784acre), here in Central KY. Black Crappie making water dimples out in the main lake open water. We caught them trolling Roadrunners. I've only seen it once, and only at that lake, but if they'll do it in these small waters ... then it's possible they do it on bigger bodies of water, but may go unnoticed.
    I'm not sure if they were feeding on tiny Shad, or some kind of emerging bug as I don't remember seeing any of either of those things.

    ... cp

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    Didn't see anything, no shad in pond that I know of-hi who knows since someone stocked LMB with out permission and now I have a mess with those guys eating up all the fat head minners and young of year coppernose

    pat W

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    You're going to need those LMB, and some flathead catfish to keep the crappie population in check. They will over populate a 5 acre pond in a hurry.
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    The problem is the timing of the bass being introduced to pond before the forage base is established good enough to feed the crappie and the bass. Any ideas how to power up the forage base by spring? 800 3" coppernose stocked in March along with 300 4-5"black crappie and 50# fathead minnows + 50 adult coppernose 6"+

    pat W

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    Like Feelay said. Your going to need them bass and a couple of flat heads. Them minnows will reproduce in a hurry. The crappie will over populate as will the bream. Need those bass and cats to keep everything in balance. Be plenty of fry from both to feed the bass and they will also feed on their own fry.
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    Cray
    like I said before there aren't any minnows left and can't see or catch any young coppernose in minnow trap. I know I will need some predators but there ain't nothin left for the crappie or the bass to eat. Whoever dumped the bad in there put breeding size bass cause they spawned this spring and between hundreds of 3" to whatever size was put in they are wiping out the forage base. The question is what do I do to get the forage base to recover to where the fish aren't starving.


    Pat W

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    Drained, dredged out my pond about 2 acres 4 years ago. Stocked with 200 readear. 300 hybrid bream, and 300 channel cat. No forage put in. Then within a year we put in a few good sized bass along with a couple of flathead cats. Bass spawned and took off. Then the Readear spawned and had plenty even though you couldn't catch them. Have minnows just from emptying some from fishing trips. Think you are rushing the whole thing new as your pond is. Give it time to settle in some. Only thing you can do at this point is seine out as many bass as you can or kill off the entire pond and start over. You can if you have time use a ultra lite and small lures and catch as many as you can and throw them on the bank. But without killing entire pond you will not rid yourself of them. I might try putting in some more flatheads, but your going to need some good cover for them to hide in from the larger fish. Build a pile in shallow water of ceder trees, the surround it with some fine mesh wire just big enough for them to get through, then put in your minnows a few at a time. They will survive and then branch out from the cover but you have to have cover for them to hide in.
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    Cray

    part of the lake is a fair weather creek of about 1 ac w/brush and timber still in it.i like the wire mesh idea around cedar. Already have the cedar in 3-4' water now but without the mesh. Knowing that it takes 10#forage to make a # of bass then every bass removed saves 10# of forage fish for every pound of bass. I know that I can't catch all the bass-nor do I want to- but want to even up the predator/ prey ratio so my crappie have a chance to grow and spawn this next spring.
    I have an automatic fish feeder for the coppernose.
    Pat W

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    Pat if you don't eat bass find some one you can trust that does and turn em loose on em. Just set the rules and stick to em. I tried it and had to run a couple of folks off. Now I just let one guy bring his grand kids to catch bass and channel cats. He comes about 5/6 times a year and gets a good mess of cats every time.
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