Heading to go pick up 4350 fish!

fishin4cars

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Honestly I can say I have never bought this many fish at one time in all the years I have been keeping fish! But the again, I have never stocked a Acre and a half pond before either. LOL We have had the Dept. of Wildlife and fisheries out, They electrochocked the pond and got a count week before last. findings were, Over stocked with native green sunfish. Over stocked with 1/2-3/4# 9"-11" bass, under stocked with baitfish. So, we seined half the pond and removed 70 bass, and 500-600 of the sunfish. fertilized and limed the pond, added additional brush piles and breeding habitat, and started aggresively feeding the sunfish. Now up to 1.5# of pellets each feeding twice a day. The Biologist set us up with a restocking format and got us in touch with a farm that would assist in the restocking. So I'm heading out shortly to go pick up 4000 fathead minnows (we all call them rosy reds) 100 shell cracker bream, ( Used for snail and bottom weed and crayfish control) (( also they will hybrinize with the green sunfish to help develope larger bream for eating)) 100 Hybrid blugill, ALL Males! these can get 2.5# and are seriously fun to catch, BUT they are sterile, no chance of over populating. 100 Copper nose bream, more aggresive than the green sunfish and are suppose to help keep the green sunfish in check and the copper nose bream gets larger there for better food for the bass. Last but not least we have 25 1-1 3/4 pound tagged Florida F-1 Large mouth bass coming. These were not cheap, well for a natural pond fish they aren't, Actually at $4 each I didn't think that was to bad plus They will come already tagged with ID and a tracking chart to watch individual growth rates as they are caught and released. These should add to the gene pool already established and hopefully add some overall size to the bass population in the years to come. Should be a interesting experince to say the least. I'll try and take some pics.
 
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Cool. 70 9"-11" bass = fish fry.

How many bigger bass were found in the survey? At some point big bass will help control the population of small bass too.

Your post reminds me of a pond near me when I was growing up (45 years ago) there was only one managed pond in our area, Nowak's pond, which is still there. I got to watch it built, listen to Fish & Game talk with Mr Nowak, and later helped remove string algae, and bluegill. He had some monster bass in just a few years, good for NY. Remember it like it was yesterday. You should have monster bass in no time on LA.

My own first mud pond, still there too...sort of. Best I could ever stock it with was a single bullhead. Grew fast though. Nowak's pond was just thru the woods. Always dreamed of having such a pond. And the geese, ducks and swans there in spring and fall...paradise.

Is your pond on Google Earth? Maybe I can live vicariously thru yours.
 

addy1

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Wow how neat! Fishin You, again, have put a lot of thought into your pond(s). Love my rosey reds, they have made a ton of babies, but I do not see a over population of them, someone is eating them, snacking away.
 

j.w

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You are having fun aren't you? Living your dream w/ all that fishy stuff going on! Would be neat to see it on google earth like Waterbug said.
 

fishin4cars

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I think this is the link to google earth. https://maps.google.com/maps?q=30.517793,-90.548847&hl=en&num=1&t=h&z=19
When they did the electro shock they only netted 6 or 7 over 1.5# and only one over 4#, when we ran the seine net we caught 2 over 1.5# and all these were released back into the pond. I got a email today from DWLF the report shows lack of mature bass by 60% over stock of 7"-12 inch by 45% over stock of green sun perch by 50%. No parasite problems, no fungal infections found, bacteria counts in normal range. Water parameters are with in normal range, Conclusion Over stock of under 1 year old fish. recommend removing 3 bream to 1 bass, with a 300-500 fish removal recommended. LOL I should have waited on stocking as I replaced pretty much what we removed.
 

fishin4cars

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My own first mud pond, still there too...sort of. Best I could ever stock it with was a single bullhead. Grew fast though. Nowak's pond was just thru the woods. Always dreamed of having such a pond. And the geese, ducks and swans there in spring and fall...paradise.
front pond or rear pond? Does your property look the same or different from the Sat. pic? Mine is quite different. barn, 8x12 dog house, fences, two Koi ponds and two new ponds don't even show up.
 

fishin4cars

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Of course nothing ever goes as planned, truck was suppose to be at the feed and seed store at 4pm, didn't arrive until 10 minutes after 5, by the time it was my turn to get my fish it was 5:45, Went to get my bass and the oxygen tank had problems and all 25 were dead, or dying. The truck driver made me a deal on the last 40 F-1 hybrid 2"-3" baby bass for half off since it was the last 40 on the truck. None tagged though. I really wanted tagged ones but the guys did show me how to tell the difference between a Florida Hybrid bass and the large mouth bass I already had.Then went to get my 4000 fathead minnows and only had 3000-3500 left and some were dying. I took all they had and they again gave me a discount. This was his last stop before returning to Oklahoma. He added 50 extra of the hybrid Bluegills for fee and I also purchased 25 6-8" channel catfish for the mud pond. All said I ended up saving about $120 off the bill, Ended up losing about 100-150 of the fathead minnows and 4-5 of the copper nose bream and probably that many shell crackers as well in transit. (honestly I think they gave extras on almost all the order) Got pretty interesting during releasing. The bass that were already in the pond went nuts on the fathead minnows! Took all the baby bass and bream to the other side of the pond and released them hoping there was less predators lurking on that side and hoping to give them a better chance of survival. By the time I was done it was totally dark and I got eat up by mosquitoes. But hopefully it will be worth it in the future.
JW, It's fun, kind of exciting, But farm work is tough! Something to do everyday! Between, working on this pond, clearing additional land, maintenance, planting food plots for the deer, and still cleaning up from Hurricane Issac I have had no time to get back on the koi pond other than cleaning filters, and feeding. but all are doing well and said to tell everyone HELLO! :goldfish: :fingersx:
 

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It does sound like you're getting back in the same boat. But the Biologist gave you the restocking plan? Weird.

One of Mr Nowak's ponds had a single Northern Pike in it. He didn't know how it got in there and wanted it out. I hooked it once but broke off. I think it helped control the bluegill and even the bass. Still had huge bass.

The pictures I posted are of the ponds today...I knew them 45 years ago. Just taking a trip down memory lane. My old pond looks to have filled in, but it always was shallow. Nowak's pond still looks the same which is amazing to me. Wonder if the fishing is still as good.

I guess Google buys the pictures from other companies and it seems like they update photos in cities more often than rural, which I guess makes business sense. Houses I've had in cities seem to be updated about once a year.
 

fishin4cars

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Actually the biologist didn't send the full recommendations until AFTER the truck had run. (The truck only runs once in the spring and once in the fall) I pretty much followed what they had suggested when on site. They recommended larger bass, of course the truck didn't deliver, had to take smaller ones instead. they didn't recommend getting any catfish. But I threw 5 in for the heck of it. and i should have gotten 4000 fat head minnows, I probably ended up releasing around 3000, and added the extra 50 hybrid bluegill (which are not suppose to breed) All in all pretty close, Not enough fluctuation to really change that much since it is a already stocked and running mature pond and I am fully aware, some are going to get eaten by bigger fish, birds, turtles etc.
Yea, you can call it a creek, to the west. It's called the little Natalbany River, But river is kind of over exaggerating it a bit. LOL If you look close on the satallite pic you can also see another pond just to the west of the House between the house and the creek. Hopefully one day we can get in there and repair it and get it back up and running too.
Going to go today and look at a live trap for turtles. That's the next project is try and remove at least 50% of the turtle population and relocate them. I know I have two extremely large turtles in the pond, One Soft shell that has to be 3' across the back of its shell, the other one is a 200#+ alligator snapper that is probably 60 years old if not older. I talked with the biologist and he said if I got rid of most of the common red ear sliders, that leaving those two wouldn't hurt the pond at all and may actually benefit more than hurt. but I will always need to try and keep the smaller turtles under control. Big turtles seem to stay in a single location far better than smaller ones. smaller ones will roam for different food sources and mating.
I can tell you, It's a challenge balancing nature here. Only so much you can do, and it seems like for every improvement I make to help, there is a obstical to overcome. Pesky herons I guess will always be a challenge. sitting here watching two at the pond now.........
 

fishin4cars

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Sounds stressful, but glad it all worked out.
It is, But I'll take a day of stress dealing with the pond/farm over dealing with the stress of a BOSS anyday! :highfive:
 

j.w

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Well you sure are the right person to have bought that piece of property. You are right on too about the no stress of not having a boss!!!
 

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I thought that too, when I retired, but after all, I'm still MARRIED! :luxlove:
John
 

fishin4cars

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Me too John, but she still works, Very peaceful around here. LOL
Oh, and BTW, I'm the Boss here! I have her permission to say that!
 
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It's really hard to control a mud bottom pond. Best I think a person can do is try and influence direction. But it's going to go where it's going to go.
 

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