Fishing pond problem?
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Ok, my uncle got a pond in 2006. When he first got it he stocked it with hybrid bluegill, redear bluegill, Bass, 3 stripers, black crappie. I go fishing there every once in a while. I usually go fishing at my creek, but anyway. He has been feeding the fish with the game fish food. when he first made it you could catch a ton of fish now it seems that you only get 6 inch baby bass to bite and the occasinal crappie. He told me when he feeds them they all go and eat the food. Are they just so used to the food they wont bite artifucals and most of the time turn down my night crawlers. I havn’t tried fly fishing it yet. I think it is a acre to 2 acre pond if that makes a difference. Can you tell me why the fish wont bite?
ya this might not help but my uncle said he hasn’t seen a floating dead fish and he put in 1 grass amur
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You can’t just huck a bunch of fish in a little pond and expect them to survive, let alone reproduce.
If conditions in the pond are not ideal (depth, temperature, pH, substrate, oxygen levels, algae, etc. etc. etc.), the fish will simply die. My guess is that the fish had one good year or so, you caught a bunch of fish, and now something is out of whack, most of the stocked fish have died, and now there’s no good fish to be caught. It’s not enough just to have a big puddle of water — it has to be healthy water, and the fish have to have habitat.
It could be that there are no proper areas for all the fish to spawn — if fish can’t spawn, the ones that die or get eaten won’t be replaced. Perhaps there are spawning areas but no cover for the juveniles. Maybe it’s too warm, or cold, or acidic, or maybe there’s no oxygen. Could be almost anything.
Maybe there is not enough forage. I realize you uncle says he feeds them, but is he a biologist? Does he know what and how much to feed each of the various species? Does he know how many fish are in there at all?
The most likely thing that will happen is the species that is the scrappiest or best suited to that pond will overcome and out-survive all of the others until you have nothing but small specimens of that one species. Without a variety of forage, cover, habitat, depths, etc., you can’t support 10 different kinds of fish all competing for the same foodbase.
This is why there are laws and regulations about stocking waterways on your own — it usually doesn’t work that well. You can’t simply collect up a bunch of fish caught in one place and dump them into some dirty little impoundment someplace else and expect them to reproduce like sea monkeys.
Unless your pond has water 50 to 70 feet deep that stays under 75ยบ or so year-round, the stripers will die the first summer. If it does have that kind of habitat, they can’t successfully spawn unless it has a swift current.
Bluegills can decimate a bass population by eating up the eggs, but bass can just as easily wipe out the bluegills — sounds like maybe the bass won.
You need to thin out the bass population. Bass will only grow as big as the resources will allow (up to their genetic potential). I’m thinking, invite a scout troop over to go fishing. I bet they’ll clean up on the old traditional H&H.
Six inch bass are tasty, just gut ‘em and scale ‘em like you would a bream.
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not seeing dead fish really just means you didn’t have a major ‘fish kill’ event — individuals die off and get eaten by snakes, turtles, birds, racoons and other wildlife — it’s the circle of life.
which species you going after..?? if the bluegills aren’t biting worm then Damn….if your going after bass try a senko or a little crankbait early in the morning before afternoon, striper…?? i think they died to be honest i dont think a striper can survive in a pond my friend put a couple in his pond in like 2000 and now 2009 we have yet to catch them….and crappie i just use minnows…live ones….
If the living conditions aren’t right then some fish species will not survive. But since your uncle said he hasn’t seen any dead ones, I believe him. The fish could be used to the fish food, it could be a possibility. Around 2 days before your next fishing trip in this pond, throw in a dozen night crawlers in varied spots. Come back in two days and fish with night crawlers. This gets the fish back used to natural food and will think that it’s safe, not knowing that someone just tricked them! Have luck with your fishing!
your uncle shouldent feed the fish.If you want to catch fish use natural bait and dont feed the fish.Thats why the fish are small.If the fish hunt for food naturaly they will get healthy and get bigger faster.GOOD LUCK FISHING!!!
Yea it sounds like the fish have become use to the food and now your uncle has a pond full of pets instead of game fish. If you were spoon fed everyday for the last 3 years would you get up and chase food around or go to the store? Nope you would wait for the dinner bell and the feeder to dispense. Sounds like you need to ween them off the bottle and see if the pond can stand on it’s own. The small bass may have not caught on to the feeder but the larger fish know whats going on.