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Question for the pond guys.

SWBUCKHNTR

SWBUCKHNTR

Member
I bought a new house that has a pond right next to it and I need some advice. I have always heard that this pond is great fishing but the previous owner never let anyone on it. When I was talking to the guy before I bought it he said that it had bluegill, crappie, bass and catfish in it. It is a 2 acre pond it has an aerator and is 15 foot deep in the middle. The previous owner says it is full of slab crappies and good size bluegills and some nice bass. Now I know enough from experience that you cant have big of all three in a pond that size. First of all when crappies are smaller they compete with bluegills then when they get biggr they compete with bass. Therefore having all three in a pond means that they all will compete and not a single one will be able to flourish over another. Here is where I run into trouble. I want to make it a good crappie pond because they are the best eating things around. Now how do I do that without totally killing off the whole pond and starting over? I have ice fished it once and caught nothing but 4-5 inch bluegill left and right. So I know that I have to get there population down. Any other suggestions on what to do?
 
What about a couple good sized flat heads or male pike that would be good predators of those small blugills?
 
I'd leave the bluegill alone as their spawn will feed the crappie. The crappie and bass will compete for the minnows, so I'd hammer the bass hard, removing every one I caught.
 
I would fish it fairly hard this spring just to get a good idea of what is in there size and species wise. Personally I think the idea that bass, bluegill and crappie can't all do well in a pond together is wrong. I have fished alot of smaller ponds with this mix that had slab gills, 12-15inch crappie and bass up to 22 inches. I don't know why it works in some ponds and not others but it does. The catfish can compete with bass once they reach 4-5 pounds. Walleye should live in the pond you described and are very efficient at cleaning out small bluegills, pretty tasty too.
 
It seems that most of the time, there really is only one or two species of fish in a stocked pond that become 'big', however, like crietveld said, there are some ponds that I fish that seems like everything that comes out of there is big. One example would be a pond that I have fished 5 or 6 times owned by two of the members on this site and the biggest crappie i've seen come out of there was about 15 or 16 inches (released), they caught a 9 lb bass on a turtle jug (released), catch tons of 3-5 lbers every year out of it, and it is nothing to sit out on the ice and catch 40 gills that are an average of 8-9 inches and a couple 11-12 inch crappies.. it's amazing! I think part of it may have to do with it being the fact that a constant stream flows through this pond, always providing food to the fish. Now, to single your pond out into being good for crappies, if you want numbers, take out some bass, if you want big slabs, leave the bass in so that the pond doesn't over-populate with thousands of 5 inch crappies. There is probably a fine line of how many pounds per acre of what fish you should take out of there to increase the size of others. I would assume a local fish biologist could provide this info for you. I think I have seen it online also.
 
i wouldn't want to go through the time of starting over. just fish the heck out of it. have some buddies (and their kids)come fish it, keep all the bass and bluegill. any gills too small to eat, move to a different pond, or feed the cats
 
Start getting rid of those dink gill's. I also agree with hitting it hard this spring for all species to get a good grasp on numbers and average size. It's never a bad idea to remove any kind of stunted fish imo, whether it be bass, gills, or crappie.

Supplemental feeding is also a good idea for small ponds, as it will help keep population numbers up. This combined with selective culling should get you off on the right track.

I've fished a lot of ponds like this and I can tell you for fact that you do NOT want to start a crappie cycle from scratch. You want a good balance of generations to MAINTAIN a healthy population. Yes, they compete with bass, but leaving good sized bass in there will help keep the bluegill population down better than will crappie.
 
I don't know what the netting rules are for private ponds but a couple fyke nets would hammer through the fish FAST. That may not be the most cost effective way though. Basically a fyke net has a long lead that goes back to a couple hoops which then goes back to the bag where the fish are. As the fish hit the lead they swim back towards the bag through the openings which narrow down an they can't get out. We would use fyke nets for netting on the mississippi an backwaters, they are really effective and let you cull out the crap while keeping the good.
 
Watch the water after ice out for a winter kill. Im afraid this winter is gonna be hard on a lot of ponds


JNRBRONC said:
I'd leave the bluegill alone as their spawn will feed the crappie. The crappie and bass will compete for the minnows, so I'd hammer the bass hard, removing every one I caught.
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Ya, sorry Randy, but I completely disagree with this. :drink1:

The Crappies are far more numerous and I would enfore a self imposed Slot Limit, putting every one over 10 inches (minimum) back, but remove every fish under that.

If you want to keep some bass, only keep 12-15 inchers, no bigger, no smaller, when selecting which fish to put back look for the ones with a bigger head as those are the older ones and are most likely stunted, keep these fish.

As far as gills go, it is impossible to hurt the population by yourself, I would do the same thing, put the bigger ones back 9"+, throw every 4-6 incher on the bank, coons gotta eat, too!

Farm ponds get overpopulated very easily, but can produce the best fishing Iowa has to offer, manage it as best as you can and you will have a long lasting fishery

If you want to enjoy a quality fishery, put all the big fish back.
 
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PS, if you want some extra help figuring out what lives in there, I'm available!
;)
 
Oh, if you're close to Iowa City I might be able to convince my boss to let me bring our shocker boat down to your pond! I guarantee we can clean out A LOT of fish with that thing!
 
muddy said:
Oh, if you're close to Iowa City I might be able to convince my boss to let me bring our shocker boat down to your pond! I guarantee we can clean out A LOT of fish with that thing!
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Is Parkersburg close enough? Its only a short 1 hour 15 minute drive away:D


As far as for tha4 come on up the only rule I have is that I am there when you fish it.
 
http://www.wildlifemanagement.info/files/fish_ponds_38.pdf

This has some decent info in it. I was just trying to figure out how to "fix" my dad's ponds on the cranberry marsh in WI. We used to catch 14"-15" crappies and 5-6lb bass frequently. Can't seem to find them so much anymore but there are a million bluegills now. I think we've got around 15acres of water in two ponds. We were thinking about feeding the crows some bluegills this winter.

Hey Muddy...you should bring that shock boat up to Warrens, WI!!! Thats probably only a 4 or 5 hour drive....
 
muddy said:
Oh, if you're close to Iowa City I might be able to convince my boss to let me bring our shocker boat down to your pond! I guarantee we can clean out A LOT of fish with that thing!
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I would love to be there when you guys do this.

I think it would be pretty neat to see.

If Thomas is there can I use it on him too. :moon:
 
swbuckhntr pm and I will be able to help you out. I own Wisconsin Lake & Pond Resource LLC, which is a lake and pond management consulting firm. We specialize in fishery studies, nusiance algae an aquatic vegetation control, aeration systems etc. I am an fisheries biologist. I deal with this all the time. not to cut anyone down, but I have the solution for you.
 
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