Starting a Pond!! (FRUSTRATION)

[WiperD25]

First of all I going to be brutally honest i don't have a clue how to start a pond, My grandpa built a pond for his grandkids 7 years ago, It just recently got filled with water, I would say it is maybe 13 ft deep at its deepest and lets say 4 acres, But i don't know how to judge how big it is either, Ok so here we go, I don't have much money to stock it professionally.. But i do have permisson from people to take fish out of 3 different farm ponds.. mostly stunted crappie what is the best way to getting a pond started.. Could i throw in like 40, 8 inch crappie, mixed with a bunch of already big bluegills 7 inch+, then start catch bass over 12 inches and put them in there.. Will it work, I just don't got a clue!!! And its frustrating me!! Here is what i want just hypothetically... I want a place where i can catch master angler quality crappie, some big ole brim, and yes some master angler LMB,, I do want to put some cats in there too, They live close to the BIG BLUE RIVER, i could run a ton of set lines and then take the catfish i catch and put them in the pond.. I even want to get some Wiper's from aquaman and put maybe 10 or so in there for a little suprise. CAN ANYONE HELP ME, It is just so frustrating cause i want this to work!! I was think of also during the winter months to put maybe 5 christman trees tied on to cinderblock on the ice to fall in when becomes the spring.. How should i do that too?

[holdemplyer]

Can't help much, but can give you a great resource,

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Nebraska Game and Parks Commission - Pond Management

you may want to check the regs on transporting of fish from one pond to another as well.

Alex

[Chad]

Wiper,

I'd start with an assessment of what you already have. Are there fish in the pond right now? If so, what are they? If not, why not?

Also, what type of habitat do you have? What types and quantity of aquatic vegetation? Depth?

In the end, it will be a way better fishery, if you invest the time up front to understand it. And remember, there's no need to hurry. This will be a slow process.

Since it's getting pretty cold right now, I might start by getting a copy of Nebraska Pond Management (Alex posted the link above), and reading it cover to cover. Read that book, and you'll learn more than you thought possible.

[Chad]

Some great info from Daryl.

You have already received some excellent advice. I will STRONGLY AGREE--get the pond management handbook and do some studying this winter, http://www.ngpc.state.ne.us/fishing/...management.asp . There is not a whole lot you can do to get started right now anyway.

Let me ramble a little bit about a few things you mentioned. First of all, a football field is roughly an acre, give or take a little bit, so that would give you a comparison to estimate the size of the pond.

Secondly, you do not have to pay anyone to have the pond stocked, nor do you have to transfer the fish yourself, if you do not want. We stock private waters, free of charge, with bluegills and largemouth bass. In order to qualify for our program the pond has to have no fish in it presently, be at least an acre in size, and at least 10 feet deep. Landowners retain trespass rights, so even if we stock the pond, permission is required to fish that private pond. If you are interested in that program, there is additional contact information on the link I posted.

The stocking combination that has proven to be very successful for small waters in Nebraska has been largemouth bass and bluegills. We provide those fish in our private waters stocking program and we recommend that land-owners can add some channel catfish to that combination if they wish. There are other stocking combinations that will work, but we know that bluegill, largemouth bass and channel catfish will provide quality fishing. Other stocking combinations would be more "experimental" and would involve more risk of failure.

Let me give you some specific examples. There are small waters in Nebraska that produce excellent crappie fishing. There are also a lot of small waters that have nothing but a bunch of small, slow-growing, paper-thin crappies. If you decide you want to have crappies, here is what I would recommend--make darned sure you have a well-established, abundant population of largemouth bass before you add crappies. That is doubly important if you also have bluegills in the same pond. Largemouth bass are THE KEY to controlling panfish numbers in small waters. If you want crappies, I would wait several years after the bass are initially stocked before stocking any crappies, and I would recommend that all bass caught from the pond be released.

Wipers are an open-water predator that thrives in relatively large bodies of water where there is an abundance of open-water prey for them to eat. How much open-water habitat do you have in a 4-acre pond? Yes, I have seen small waters with some excellent wiper fishing. Those waters either had gizzard shad or some other open-water prey fish which were very detrimental to bluegills and other fish in small waters if they are present, or the wipers were supplementally fed with artificial feed. In the situation you described, I would not recommend stocking wipers unless you were planning to feed them.

Once fish populations become established you can manage a pond for a "balanced" fishery that produces quality-size panfish and largemouth bass. That management option may also produce some big panfish and some big bass. But if you want to maximize the production of big panfish for example, you will want a bass population dominated by 10-15-inch bass that will rarely produce any big bass. On the other hand, if you want to produce the biggest bass possible, you will want a pond that is full of a bunch of small panfish that rarely produces any large panfish. You absolutely can have some excellent fishing for a variety of fish in small waters, but understand that those species all interact with each other in a relatively small habitat. The more species you add to the mix the more likely you will have "a little bit of everything and a whole lot of nothing", and the less likely you will produce many big fish of any species. There are trade-offs to any management option you choose; you have to decide what is the best management strategy for your pond.

How clear is the water in the pond? If it is relatively clear you should have at least some aquatic vegetation growing in time and that will be some of the best fish habitat you can ask for. You can add brushpiles and those will no doubt attract fish, but unless you add a darned lot of brushpiles you will do little to increase the carrying capacity of that habitat. Brushpiles are very good fish attractors that will concentrate fish in an area that is easy to find and then those fish are then easier to catch. If you have clean water and aquatic vegetation you have all the fish habitat you need in the first place, but if you want to add brushpiles as fish attractors, go for it! If your pond is only 13 feet at the deepest, you could place brushpiles pretty much anywhere you wanted--probably where they would be most convenient to fish. I would recommend cedar trees instead of Christmas trees--Christmas trees decay rapidly and provide very little cover while it takes cedar trees longer to decay and they provide more cover in that time. Tying cinder blocks or other weights to the base of the trees as you have desribed will work just fine.

If you have any questions at all, feel free to ask!

Daryl Bauer
Lakes and Reservoirs Program Manager
Nebraska Game & Parks Commission
daryl.bauer@nebraska.gov

P.S. Feel free to share this message with others if you wish.

[WiperD25]

Thanks for all the advice, I got to learn to be patient i guess, I kind of jumped the gun, I didn't think it was such i process. If i was going to choose i want to take the gigantic LMB route... I don't like them big bluegill though... Adding like 5 gallons of minnows bad every year, Im thinking yes but my fish sure would be fat

[WiperD25]

I do like them big bluegills< woops

[MA Machine]

I'm not a expert by any means. I've read some books and visited pond boss more than a couple times. I'd start with Gills year one, Then Bass and Cats year 2, Then Crappie 3-4 years after the gills. Crappie will overtake a pond if there are not any predators (Bass). Crappie are great but you will have to manage them, since they are like field mice in a lake and can stunt everything. Crappie also seem to over populate dirty water lakes quicker since bass are sight feeders. I've read that catfish don't have much effect on the fish population but a over abundance of cats can dirty up your water since they are bottom cruisers. I would not put a any flathead cats in your lake no matter how tempted you might be. They are the super predator and may cause damage to your bass population which would be very bad. You'll need to do a little bit of studying on structure and figure out what your pond has. Structure can help or hinder your lake depending on what your goals are. A over abundance of close quarters, tight structure (trees, cattail stands, rush) may increase the amount of YOY (young of year) that will survive. You may or may not want that. PVC structure and bigger looser structure may decrease YOY since it is more of an ambush spot for bigger fish and does not allow YOY to hide out in. You will have fun with your Pond. The hardest thing about it is waiting to see what happens. Good luck!!

[MA Machine]

Originally Posted by WiperD25

Adding like 5 gallons of minnows bad every year, Im thinking yes but my fish sure would be fat

Your bluegill population will supply the food, no need to add minnows. Your chances of getting rough fish are very high when adding minnows. If the pond does not have a dam you might want to consider crayfish. If it has a dam I would shy away from them since they can compromise the integrity of your dam with their burrows.

[MA Machine]

Originally Posted by MA Machine

Your bluegill population will supply the food, no need to add minnows. Your chances of getting rough fish are very high when adding minnows. If the pond does not have a dam you might want to consider crayfish. If it has a dam I would shy away from them since they can compromise the integrity of your dam with their burrows.

DITTO WHAT "MA Machine" said! For ponds that have no fish in them yet, we use a split stocking strategy--fingerling bluegill one year followed by fingerling largemouth bass the next year. We do NOT recommend stocking minnows for the reasons "MA Machine" cited, plus we do not want any fish competing with the bluegills when they are first introduced. The bluegills will provide plenty of prey for the largemouth bass once they become established. After the largemouth bass become established they will eat minnows as fast as you can put them in there--if you like supplementally feeding expensive minnows to the bass.

Things like crayfish and frogs will tend to show up on their own over time whether you want them or not.

Daryl Bauer
Lakes and Reservoirs Program Manager
Nebraska Game & Parks Commission
daryl.bauer@nebraska.gov

[Omaha]

My first post here, but I wanted to add to what MA Machine posted about the minnows. I've read that it is strongly discouraged to get minnows from baitshops to add to your pond because you're not really sure what species they are. Also, I believe it's suggested for most ponds (4 acres is a pretty good size though) to only stock bluegill, LMB, and channel cats. Anything else you should do some extensive research.

[Omaha]

Originally Posted by Omaha

My first post here, but I wanted to add to what MA Machine posted about the minnows. I've read that it is strongly discouraged to get minnows from baitshops to add to your pond because you're not really sure what species they are. Also, I believe it's suggested for most ponds (4 acres is a pretty good size though) to only stock bluegill, LMB, and channel cats. Anything else you should do some extensive research.

So I've been doing a lot of research since my first post here and have a little more to add. First off, setting your forage base around fathead minnows and golden shiners. Forty pounds (10# per acre) of the minnows and 200 or so golden shiners. This will give you a really solid forage base for those bass you'll stock later. Everything I've read supports a 7:3 ratio between bluegill and redear sunfish, so 700 bluegill and 300 redear sunfish for your size of pond. Once they've spawned once or more, you can stock your largemouth bass. 350 largemouths. The channel catfish you can stock as you want, stock what you think you'll harvest. Don't let them reproduce. Just replace as you harvest. I believe most pondmeisters like to stock about the same number of channels cats as they do bass, knowing the cats will not reproduce. Hope this helps and I'd certainly welcome anyone to echo these numbers or question them. These are the ratios I was intending for my small pond.