12-07-2007, 03:37 PM
ok, you have the same problem as every one else maintaining a stock pond..
your problem is your pond can not produce the amont of food required to maintain the number of fish you want to harvest in a year...
you have a couple options and one of them is not catching fish from other bodies of water and bringing them back to your farm pond...
Reason is you will bring back desease and invasive species of plant and other aquadic nusances..
There is a fish farm in Imlay city who will deliver...
Insted of putting in a pike put in an automated fish feeder. Placing in a pike in a small area like that is just adding one more preditor to an already preditor over poplation..
much like the deer feeder it feeds twice per day...
the advantage of the fish feeder is that you will feed your gills and prevent stunting, once stunted the wont grow any more... You will know if you have a stunting problem if you have gills under 8-9 inches that are full of eggs...
I would do three things...
[ol] [li]first I would order some blue gills.. They come 8-9 inches in lenth... You will want some hybreds, and you will want some standards... Hybred gills get to 14-18 inches if food is available...[/li] [li]order food, at the time of planting you want to flood the release area with minnows and shads. an automated fish feeder will put out fish pellets your gills will be happy to eat even the ones already existing in your pond...[/li] [li]Maintain a healthy population, by this I mean you will need to weed out some fish, yes adding a pike would help but you would need to release 20 or 30 and it would take years for the pond to naturalize it self.. Insted invest in to a cast net. 10-25 foot will do... You can do the job of 50 pike in a day or two's time... [/li] [ul] [li]Pack a filleting knife, and a few 5 gallon buckets. [/li] [li]Prior to gill spawning go out and harvest any gill under 8 inches full of eggs and any gill under 5 inches.. You are not going to be able to get rid of all of them so dont sweat it.. You are the top fish harvester of the pond, Fillet and skin up what you want to keep and place all the rest in to the garden no deaper than 8 inches... "Depth of a shovel blade" [/li] [li]a pike will only take out a few hundred fish in a year and will not be selective and has he gets bigger he wont target the ones you want to get rid of, insted he will become a competitor for the fish you want to harvest.[/li] [li]as long as the fish never leave the property you can harvest the under sized bass if nessary, but I doubt you will need to, reason is that once you start the blue gill regiment plan you will cause the bass to start feeding on them selves.. this will reduce the number of bass in the pond and will increase the size of the remaining ones...[/li] [li]Dont put in perch or other pan fish because you have a food defficet problem. By adding more species you in affect create more compitition for the same amount of available food.. Feeding them will solve the problem but at an expence..[/li] [li]if you do all that I mentioned above impose a fishing rule on your pond, Minnimum gill size limit of 10 inches for gills... You will see a dramitic change in your pond by september of the first year...[/li][/ul][/ol]
you dont want to do the planting of your Hybred and Standards untill after you do the weeding..
Dont stock any gills under 8 inches.. Reason is because this is going to become your new breading stock.. Which is the reason for the 10 minimum gill size requirement... Yes you will be able to harvest a few gills 10 inches by december and feb under the ice, but I say dont harvest anything untill the second year unless you want to do a stock and harvest program on a yearly baises.. In wich case you will want to stock only the hybreds..
When to stock them, Plan on mid june, this will give you time to harvest the breading stunts & runts.
In the spring look for the spawning beds, I am sure you already know where they are, Just prior to spaw they will start congragating near the spawn area. target those areas with your net. You can also target the deap holes.. order a couple fish tags to tag your big bass. you can prestamp a name on the tag so you know when you catch big birtha or what ever..
Blue gills dont live much more than 5-6 years, you can have a pond full of 3-5 inch breading gills. Doing one major harvest prior to spawn will do more for your pond than doing anything else.. But with out stocking it will like you said take a couple years for your gills to return to normal if they can..
The first Dont allow any bluegill fishing on the pond unless you plant extras for a harvest and count the number of harvested ones kept. You need to maintain your breading stock. The hybred ones you can harvest during the first year because they wont bread for you. So make sure you know the differance between the hybreds and breaders...
[ul] [li]airation in the pond is critical when you have a pond with limited amount of of area where the pond can take on oxigen. ponds take in oxigen naturaly two ways, wind agitation, water fall agitation. [/li] [li]there are two types of oxigenators available on the market, fountain and bubbler, one works as well as the other..[/li] [li]any normal winter can cause a major fish kill off on your pond, especialy if it is a shallow pond.[/li][/ul]
Stunted gills is caused by lack of food and oxigen
Farm Ponds can become proffitable. [indent]
pay to fish
harvest and sell
home freezer stock[/indent]
Recap
If you do every thing I suggest, this is what will happen,
the pond will have a food shortage for bass,
Bass will start feeding on them selves eliminating the need for any more preditor fish.
you increas the amount of available food for your stocked breaders increasing their size by decreasing the number of stunts in the spring. Thus by year two you will be harvesting 14 inch minimum gills.
adding a fish feeder reduces the stress on your gills and will alow them to grow larger in size. "wich is what you want"
Bigger fish require more oxigen especialy during winter months. to avoid fish kills place in an airator of some sort to protect your envestment.
note, If you dont want to spend any money at all, invest in a cast net and pull out the stunted gills off the beds in the spring prior to spawning... that is the best thing you can do for your pond. dont add any other species from any other bodies of water... Only pick up your fish stock from breaders to insure no non-native invasions of aquatic life.
note, a couple acre privet pond is nothing more than a giant aquarium. It will create its own ecosystem if left alone but will never produce the product you want if not maintained to some extent.
note, Fish need two things to grow, food and oxigen...
Note, If you want another species in your pond, concider Bull frogs...
[signature]
your problem is your pond can not produce the amont of food required to maintain the number of fish you want to harvest in a year...
you have a couple options and one of them is not catching fish from other bodies of water and bringing them back to your farm pond...
Reason is you will bring back desease and invasive species of plant and other aquadic nusances..
There is a fish farm in Imlay city who will deliver...
Insted of putting in a pike put in an automated fish feeder. Placing in a pike in a small area like that is just adding one more preditor to an already preditor over poplation..
much like the deer feeder it feeds twice per day...
the advantage of the fish feeder is that you will feed your gills and prevent stunting, once stunted the wont grow any more... You will know if you have a stunting problem if you have gills under 8-9 inches that are full of eggs...
I would do three things...
[ol] [li]first I would order some blue gills.. They come 8-9 inches in lenth... You will want some hybreds, and you will want some standards... Hybred gills get to 14-18 inches if food is available...[/li] [li]order food, at the time of planting you want to flood the release area with minnows and shads. an automated fish feeder will put out fish pellets your gills will be happy to eat even the ones already existing in your pond...[/li] [li]Maintain a healthy population, by this I mean you will need to weed out some fish, yes adding a pike would help but you would need to release 20 or 30 and it would take years for the pond to naturalize it self.. Insted invest in to a cast net. 10-25 foot will do... You can do the job of 50 pike in a day or two's time... [/li] [ul] [li]Pack a filleting knife, and a few 5 gallon buckets. [/li] [li]Prior to gill spawning go out and harvest any gill under 8 inches full of eggs and any gill under 5 inches.. You are not going to be able to get rid of all of them so dont sweat it.. You are the top fish harvester of the pond, Fillet and skin up what you want to keep and place all the rest in to the garden no deaper than 8 inches... "Depth of a shovel blade" [/li] [li]a pike will only take out a few hundred fish in a year and will not be selective and has he gets bigger he wont target the ones you want to get rid of, insted he will become a competitor for the fish you want to harvest.[/li] [li]as long as the fish never leave the property you can harvest the under sized bass if nessary, but I doubt you will need to, reason is that once you start the blue gill regiment plan you will cause the bass to start feeding on them selves.. this will reduce the number of bass in the pond and will increase the size of the remaining ones...[/li] [li]Dont put in perch or other pan fish because you have a food defficet problem. By adding more species you in affect create more compitition for the same amount of available food.. Feeding them will solve the problem but at an expence..[/li] [li]if you do all that I mentioned above impose a fishing rule on your pond, Minnimum gill size limit of 10 inches for gills... You will see a dramitic change in your pond by september of the first year...[/li][/ul][/ol]
you dont want to do the planting of your Hybred and Standards untill after you do the weeding..
Dont stock any gills under 8 inches.. Reason is because this is going to become your new breading stock.. Which is the reason for the 10 minimum gill size requirement... Yes you will be able to harvest a few gills 10 inches by december and feb under the ice, but I say dont harvest anything untill the second year unless you want to do a stock and harvest program on a yearly baises.. In wich case you will want to stock only the hybreds..
When to stock them, Plan on mid june, this will give you time to harvest the breading stunts & runts.
In the spring look for the spawning beds, I am sure you already know where they are, Just prior to spaw they will start congragating near the spawn area. target those areas with your net. You can also target the deap holes.. order a couple fish tags to tag your big bass. you can prestamp a name on the tag so you know when you catch big birtha or what ever..
Blue gills dont live much more than 5-6 years, you can have a pond full of 3-5 inch breading gills. Doing one major harvest prior to spawn will do more for your pond than doing anything else.. But with out stocking it will like you said take a couple years for your gills to return to normal if they can..
The first Dont allow any bluegill fishing on the pond unless you plant extras for a harvest and count the number of harvested ones kept. You need to maintain your breading stock. The hybred ones you can harvest during the first year because they wont bread for you. So make sure you know the differance between the hybreds and breaders...
[ul] [li]airation in the pond is critical when you have a pond with limited amount of of area where the pond can take on oxigen. ponds take in oxigen naturaly two ways, wind agitation, water fall agitation. [/li] [li]there are two types of oxigenators available on the market, fountain and bubbler, one works as well as the other..[/li] [li]any normal winter can cause a major fish kill off on your pond, especialy if it is a shallow pond.[/li][/ul]
Stunted gills is caused by lack of food and oxigen
Farm Ponds can become proffitable. [indent]
pay to fish
harvest and sell
home freezer stock[/indent]
Recap
If you do every thing I suggest, this is what will happen,
the pond will have a food shortage for bass,
Bass will start feeding on them selves eliminating the need for any more preditor fish.
you increas the amount of available food for your stocked breaders increasing their size by decreasing the number of stunts in the spring. Thus by year two you will be harvesting 14 inch minimum gills.
adding a fish feeder reduces the stress on your gills and will alow them to grow larger in size. "wich is what you want"
Bigger fish require more oxigen especialy during winter months. to avoid fish kills place in an airator of some sort to protect your envestment.
note, If you dont want to spend any money at all, invest in a cast net and pull out the stunted gills off the beds in the spring prior to spawning... that is the best thing you can do for your pond. dont add any other species from any other bodies of water... Only pick up your fish stock from breaders to insure no non-native invasions of aquatic life.
note, a couple acre privet pond is nothing more than a giant aquarium. It will create its own ecosystem if left alone but will never produce the product you want if not maintained to some extent.
note, Fish need two things to grow, food and oxigen...
Note, If you want another species in your pond, concider Bull frogs...
[signature]