40 acre pond management

[Tone2129]

So let me tell you about my pond/lake.

It is 40 acres with a lot of shore structure, some good points deep banks and some progressive banks as well. It is a sand pit so pretty clear.

Now the fish:
The Carp are HUGE 40-50lb common carp
The Crappie are Huge but few and far between, 2 days ago I got a 16 incher and last year caught a few 17 inchers.
The Bluegill are Big with most being above 9 inches
White Perch - I am convinced there is a state record perch in there but we kill the ones we catch

The Bass - There are some big ones in there but it has been a while since we have caught anything over 5 1/2. We try and take about 100 1-2 lbers out a year but we didnt last year because we dont eat fish that much.

Is there any way we can get the lake shocked, and get surveyed? Also, have the game and parks take the fish out of the lake and stock them into a public lake?

Also, how can I get my largemouth to get to epic proportion? Also, could we stock the lake with smallies possibly?

[Mako]

I won't be too much help here, but if you have state record size white perch, you're still not doing too bad and probably still have a chance (although a small one) of trying to get on top of them.

[Shorty]

Contact Jeff Blaser, he is the G & P's private water specialist, he might have time to come out and electroshock and give you an evaluation and some advice. He can be reached at 402-471-5435, BTW he is a great guy to work with. There are also a few guys that can be hired to come out and electroshock if Jeff's schedule is too busy this year.

Since you have common carp, crappie, and the dreaded white perch I would be very hesitant to remove any LMB as you will need them to keep the number of rough fish you have from getting out of control.

Growing your LMB to epic proportions means thinning them down so they have less competition and abundant food in the right sizes. This also has a tendency to make them much more difficult to catch.

You can stock SMB but you will need to find a supplier that can provide them in a size that is 8-10" or larger other wise they will just be an expensive snack for your LMB. Setting up a blocking net and letting the SMB that you purchase acclimatize to your pond chemisrty for a few days will also greatly increase their survival rate.

[holdemplyer]

Carp - is pond near a river, or get flooded by a river, stream etc? If so, deal with the carp, they are there to stay, white perch too. Got friends who bow fish? get em out there.....

White Perch, see carp..... fish em and kill em.

The only way to totally get rid of them is to kill off the lake......

Is there any way we can get the lake shocked, and get surveyed?

Jeff Blaser
Private Waters Specialist Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
2200 N. 33rd St./PO Box 30370 Lincoln, NE 68503-0370
Phone: 402-471-5435
e-mail: mailto:jeff.blaser@ngpc.ne.gov

Also, have the game and parks take the fish out of the lake and stock them into a public lake?

doubtful.

Also, how can I get my largemouth to get to epic proportion? Also, could we stock the lake with smallies possibly?

Pond Boss Magazine Home Page!

[Tone2129]

The White Perch are not a problem they are just big. The Carp are the same way, not a problem, just very big...I think, that is why I want to electroshock the lake and get a survey done.

I am not afraid of working for a big fish :-D

Yes, the lake is a stones throw away from the platte river hence the white perch.

I will give jeff a call! Thanks guys!

[Shorty]

Whatever you do, do not let the white perch get out of control. The introduction of Gshad would be bad for your pond.

Have you given any thought about suplemental feeding program using pellets to feed your fish?

[Tone2129]

The pond/lake has been around for 40 sum years I might add. We have already had the "white perch problem" and actually took care of it in the 90's. We would literally catch a 55 gal drum of white perch and then proceed to burn them. Probably not the best thing to do, but we took care of the problem in a couple years with doing that

[Shorty]

The difference between the WP at Branched Oak and the WP at Pawnee is thought to boil down to the presence of Gshad in BO, the predators in BO much prefer to eat Gshad over WP which leads to the stunting of WP.

[Fish On]

Originally Posted by Shorty

The difference between the WP at Branched Oak and the WP at Pawnee is thought to boil down to the presence of Gshad in BO, the predators in BO much prefer to eat Gshad over WP which leads to the stunting of WP.

Whats that mean??? Are the WP in Pawnee larger or smaller on average? I haven't been to Pawnee much the last few years, but last I was there the WP seemed to be 4-5"

[Fish On]

Quote:
Whats that mean??? Are the WP in Pawnee larger or smaller on average? I haven't been to Pawnee much the last few years, but last I was there the WP seemed to be 4-5"

What "shorty" told you about the white perch in Pawnee and Branched Oak was correct. We have had white perch in Pawnee for a long time, but have not seen them explode and become stunted like we have in Branched Oak. Yet. The predator fish in Pawnee have had mostly white perch to eat for most of those years while the predators in Branched Oak have had gizzard shad in addition to white perch. So, predation has been more successful at staying on top of the white perch in Pawnee over the years.

But, you are correct, in recent years we are seeing more and more and smaller white perch in Pawnee as well.

Daryl Bauer
Fisheries Outreach Program Manager
Nebraska Game & Parks Commission
daryl.bauer@nebraska.gov
Nebraska Game and Parks Commission - Trout Stocking

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

[LincolnLunger]

Originally Posted by Fish On

Whats that mean??? Are the WP in Pawnee larger or smaller on average? I haven't been to Pawnee much the last few years, but last I was there the WP seemed to be 4-5"

I fished pawnee once last summer and the majority of the fish I caught were white perch, with a few small crappie. we were drifting with small 2 inch spoons and most of the perch we caught were barely bigger than the spoon.

[bigjigs]

If you removed most of the very large specimens of WP and carp, could that in itself cause a stunting of the WP and Carp. It seems if you remove the largest specimens of any species, it could cause a stunting of said species or bring the system out of balance. Maybe the WP and carp are managing themselves? Maybe this lake is a system where the carp and WP don't need to be managed, unless you want to completly kill it off and start over. I would be carefull about bowfishing and selecting the largest carp in the system. Would you rather have 50 40-50 pound carp or a million 2-3 pound carp? Even tho their nonnative, It seems carp and WP are here to stay, its just a question of how well their managed.

[huskerbowhunter]

15+ inch white perch out there. Kinda scary. I don't know if I would stock it with smb. I've pulled smaller white perch out of the gullets of smb at my lake, but I would be afraid of the white perch eating the smallies in that lake. Seriously I bet smallies would do fine out there.

[cougarw]

I wouldn't be taking any more bass out of there. Sounds like they are the ones keeping the WP in check. I'm sure the perch are spawning but not getting a chance to grow because they are getting eaten. The perch might be the cause of the low crappie population though, might consider stocking some more crappie. I'm also sure smb would live ok, but competition with the lmb will be strong.
If it were mine I would leave as is (maybe add crappie), kill all the WP you can, and if you get the G&P out to shock, make sure none of them get back to the water.

[Fish On]

Nebraska Lake Management can shock it and remove some of the trashfish, for a fee of course. They used to do that at Wirenut's sand pit twice a year, would get about 1500-2000lbs of fish each time. No idea on cost.

[huskerbowhunter]

I know guys that will remove A LOT of trash fish for free.

[Bass-Assassin]

Sounds like your pond is pretty balanced other than the smaller bass. Smaller/medium bass= larger everything else. If you continually thin your bass you risk the white perch getting out of control and smaller gills and crappie. Basically what Shorty said.....