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It's the right time for stocking private ponds

Pond Boss

Just a matter of a few short months ago, many farm ponds and private fishing lakes were almost void of water, thanks to several years of sparse rainfall. I live a short distance from some old gravel pits that a few friends and I lease for fishing. I remember five or six years ago, I could launch a my 14-foot aluminum boat and use an electric trolling motor to push me to the very back of the farthest pond, a distance of at least a quarter mile. The fishing lease consists of several deeper pits that, during periods of normal rainfall, are connected by strips of shallow water.

First, these shallow connecting channels dried up and then, year by year, the deeper pits gradually lost water. Late last summer what was once twenty acres of water was reduced to one shallow puddle no more than twenty feet square. We lost most of the bass and catfish a couple years ago because of low water. The remaining fish were mostly carp and gar. When we removed these unwanted fish, the entire system of gravel pits was void of any fish.

This spring, our once red-hot fishing hole went from bone dry to now where it’s averaging about 6 feet in depth. With more rain forecast in the immediate future, we are optimistic that we can possibly rebuild our fishery to where it once was, or better! But where to start? Enter my long time friend Bob Lusk. Bob is a fisheries biologist with almost four decades of experience managing private waters. Bob is considered the Guru of private water fishery management. He and his team publish an excellent magazine called Pond Boss that is chock full of interesting and informative articles that pertain to managing private lakes and ponds. When it comes to stocking and managing private waters Bob, you might say, wrote the book! 

“Luke, I will come out and take a close look at what you have out there,” says Bob. “It’s important to know what you want the fishery to be. Are you and the other anglers interested primarily in catching giant largemouth bass or do you wish to have plenty of “meat” fish such as channel catfish and bream that not only put up a strong fight on rod and reel but also make for some great table fare. Or, do want both?”

During a lengthy telephone conservation, Bob and I discussed several options. Much depends upon water levels. The larger, deeper pond looks just fine right now and with all the newly flooded vegetation, it provides plenty of cover to protect baitfish and provide ambush cover for the predator fish.  But what will the water level look like at the end of the upcoming summer? That is the biggest part of the equation that we and anyone else considering stocking fish has to consider.

Ultimately, we would like our little fishery to be like it once was, brimming full of water year around and full of largemouth bass, catfish and crappie but this is totally dependent upon rainfall in upcoming months.

It will be interesting to learn what Bob decides is the best plan for restocking. After working with thousands and thousands of landowners and smaller waters, he knows that step one is to inspect the pond before making a decision. His initial thoughts were to consider stocking with channel catfish and hybrid bream and forage fish such as sunfish and possibly fathead minnows.

We could do the initial stocking with good size catfish and begin a feeding program to supplement their diet of baitfish. Catfish are pretty hardy and could tolerate lower water levels and warm water temperatures during this period of rainfall uncertainty.  We could be catching eating size catfish and big hybrid bream by fall. I’m excited. We plan to do our ‘’on the ground survey” about the time you are reading this and hopefully within a week or so, we will have the beginnings of what we hope to become a great fishery.

I have learned this from my conservations with Bob: Do it yourself pond management usually doesn’t work unless you have the facts. The first thing that usually comes to mind when restocking is simply to round up some bass, catfish and crappie, maybe a 5-gallon bucket full of small sunfish, put them in the pond and hope for the best. A pond or small lake is actually an isolated ecosystem and every introduced organism, regardless whether it be fish or plant, must benefit the overall health.  It’s important to know what is already in the pond before doing any stocking. With our pond, we are in essence beginning as though it were a brand new pond with fresh water. Maybe that is a good thing. Time and the expertise of the country’s top expert in pond management will tell. I promise to keep you updated in upcoming columns.

For more information on pond management or restocking, visit pondboss.com.   

Outdoors writer, radio host and book author Luke Clayton has been addicted to everything outdoors related since his childhood when he grew up hunting and fishing in rural northeast Texas. Luke pens a weekly newspaper column that appears in over thirty newspapers.