Possible to fish out a species? (catfish)

[John Boat]

Ok, Within the last 2 yrs I have acquired a pond (in S. Oklahoma) that has been in the family since 1976.  It's a 15 acre pond with natural structure (lots of standing timber), averaging about 8-10 ft deep with the deepest end being around 25-30ft near the d**n.  There are plenty of bass, crappie and bluegill, but no catfish.  I can consistently catch a dozen bass in a matter of a few hours with most fish being over 3 lbs and the biggest around 9lbs.  I've tried fishing for catfish dozens of times with absolutely no luck.  I've even run a few trot lines, nothing.  I know the pond was originally stocked with catfish (channel and flathead) as well as the other fish.  Catfish in the 20lb range were not uncommon in this pond, and even as recent as the late 1990's.  The pond didn't have any maintenance for about 5 yrs so we're not sure who was fishing it and what they pulled out.

My question is........ is it possible to completely fish out all the catfish in a pond of that size??  Is it possible all the bass ate them??  It seems strange to me to think that all the catfish are gone.

[roadwarrior]

Around here there is no limit on catfish except

for size: You are only allowed to keep one over

36", I think. So, reproduction is extremely strong.

I suggest stocking your pond with big catfish

from other water and see if they repopulate

the pond. Introducing little catfish is probably

a waste of effort.

8-)

[KYntucky Warmouth]

I used to fish for cats with my dad at a little lake that numerous fish of the same size, no limit on size or numbers and harvesting was encouraged.  He would go 2-3x a month at first, night fishing, we lived about 2-3 hours from the lake, and come back with coolers full of 4-8lb cats, the best night I remember was somewhere around the 60's.  Went that way for a good 5-6 years and eventually slowed.  They're still there bigger ones are scarce but there are some big ones there.