Thread: Pond Mgmt 101

No, too much work around the house to do. Probably go next week.

My neighbor has a crane-like thing with a claw-type bucket. Sort of like one of those kid machines with the stuffed toys in it that grabs the toy.....Patti

I received a PM from an individual wanting some suggestions on managing a pond for catfish,crappie & waterfowl. Well is there a predator fish stocked to control the crappie (bass), if so, how big are they? 30 grass carp were stocked. OK. Why? Is there a weed problem? If so, what is the weed(s)? Could it be a food source for the ducks? If so, you may have shot yourself in the foot. 10 pounds of fatheads were stocked in the lake. Ok, when? Were there any perch stocked? The 10 pounds of fatheads that were stocked will be eliminated real quick if the crappie are any size. If I was going to stock the pond with fatheads then I would stock with at least 200 pounds. On Friday I checked with a minnow breeder and they sell fatheads for $10.00/pound. Too expensive! I would stock 50 pairs of adult bluegill per acre(1,250 pairs) and let Mother NAture do her thing. Reference back to my coppernose stocking project on a 1 1/4 acre pond. 6 pairs stocked last year and 1.5 - 2 million offspring expected by now. Crappie do not like perch to eat, too spiny.

As for catfish stock them and put them on feed and they will grow fast or stock bluegill and wait.

The ducks... well any mud flats? If so then Jap millet could be broadcast by the first of August and it should be ready by Fall, if the deer don't get it first. Deer love jap millet. I have planted it around my pond just for the deer and they wipe it out every time I planted. There are other things that can be planted for the ducks but there is not enough information.

My gut feel is that some one may have jumped the gun on their objectives and may have messed up already. It might be corrected but it may take years to
correct.

People do not plan to fail..............they just fail to plan.

If I receive more information, I will pass it on. Stay cool and push the fluids. Immortal words from Stinkfinger.

Yesterday I returned a call from a gentleman that was concerned that his pond bottom had not sealed. The man indicated that he had just built a new 1/4 acre pond to water his cattle. He had dug too deep and had hit a shale vein in the bottom of a ravine that he had dammed and the pond would not hold water. NOW WHAT. He had added 3,500 pounds of bentonite clay and that did not work. He checked on a pond liner but that cost thousands of dollars. HELP! Luckily he stumbled on an advertisement of mine in the Oklahoma Living Magazine, a magazine published by the Oklahoma Rural Electric Coop, and called.
We had a brief chat and I suggested 3 options: 1) bring the dozer back in and push a bunch of clay in that was on the sides of the pond and pack it effectively sealing the vein of shale. 2) feed his cattle in the bottom and let them poop and stomp the bottom which is effective in packing the bottom. 3) drain and dry the bottom then spread more bentonite clay, till or lightly disc, pack it with a roller while you wet the clay. The third option will incorporate the clay into the shale, the packing seals the bottom and the water allows the clay to swell effectively sealing the deal. I expect he will use a combination of 1 and 3. He thanked me and hung up a happy man.

Gosh, I guess I should have asked him if I could trap his new pond for crawdads in about a year since he was not going to stock it with fish.

Coming from a long line of farmers. My dad told my brother in law,who has the same problem, to pen up some hogs and let them wallow it shut, says it works every time. A slow but simple solution, If ya already got the hogs:D

I have been asked about what a person has to do to raise minnows in a pond.
This is very simple and easy to do. 1) make sure there are no fish in the stock pond. Try seining to double check because you do not want to do the work just to feed some perch that you did not know were in the pond.
2) Contact a minnow dealer or your state wildlife department for a list of fish breeders in your area. 3) Purchase some fathead minnows which should cost around $65.00 to 75.00/ gallon (8 pounds) and release them in your pond. I reccommend fatheads because they are hardier than shiners when it comes to stress due to warm water and low dissolved oxygen. 4) Add some brush or trees for spawning habitat. Fatheads spawn upside down on a surface. I use approx 9" long pieces of 3"-4" PVC pipe. I scatter them around the shallow pond in 2-3' of water. I have approx 2 dozen habitat pipes in my 1/4 acre minnow pond.

Fatheads start spawning around April in Oklahoma and will spawn each month until September. If you will leave them alone for 1 year then start using them you will never run out of minnows again.

I started my pond 2 years ago and this year I have used my minnow supply to start 5 other ponds.

Has anyone ever seen many quail in a plowed field???? That is what I thought. Why is that? There is no cover to protect them from predators. HHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMM. Don't we call that habitat when it comes to fish??? The pond that has no habitat or cover for the fish is not a very good pond it is just a bowl. In contrast the pond with a good deal of cover or habitat or structure is a good pond to catch fish.

The planting of trees, brush and aquatic plants makes for good cover to allow the young fish to hide and feed and grow big enough that they won't get eaten.

If anyone is thinking of building a pond leave some brush or standing trees in the pond. I added brush piles and layed down some trees and anchored them when I built my pond in 1987. The piles are still there doing their job.
Aquatic plants can be added but you had best consult a fisheries biologist as to what to plant and where in the pond.

tight lines.

Cricket George, you read my mind! I got online tonight just to ask you about putting brush piles in my pond. No wonder I don't have any blue gill in my pond. I don't have any cover in the pond. We had a huge problem with too much vegetation when we bought this place. We were told to put grass carp in the pond so we put in 4 of them about 8 years ago. Now we don't have that problem any more, but we also have no cover for the fish. I think we have one grass carp left. We see it every once in a while. It is about 2' long. I thought it was a snake when I saw it last week. Do we need to get rid of it? What kind of brush can we put in the pond? We have some cedar trees on our land, and we have one pecan tree that has to be cut down. Will they work? How do we anchor them? Concrete and chain?

Also, is it legal to catch blue gill adults on a lake and bring them to my pond? Thanks, Patti

Patti- The cedar trees will work fine just put a couple together and place in several spots at different depths to accomodate the fish at different times of the year. The pecan tree will work fine in the pond but I think I would rather cut up the pecan into small pieces, allow it to dry, and smoke a brisket with it. YUM!! Oaks work fine but any tree will do just as long as it is anchored good. I sometimes drill a hole at the bottom or base of the tree and thread a nylon rope or ski rope thru and tie it to a couple of concrete blocks and sink it.
Catching adult bluegill in another lake or pond and transporting to your pond is legal. Be sure they are nice big ones so they do not become food for the bass. 10 pairs will be a good start. A few more would be better. The evenings are cool right now and the perch seem to be responding, so catch away.

If you have any further questions let me know.