Fixing a problem in a small lake.

[Steve_S]

I work for a Police Dept. in Kansas, and the dept. has its own lake (F.O.P. lake). I have been put in charge of the of the lake committee, and the Pres. of the F.O.P. wants to stock more and different predatory fish, such as trout, crappie, and more channel cats. I just took the job over 3 day's ago and am trying to cool his jets until we can thin out some of the other cats and largemouths that are already in there (prior stocking before i got to the Dept.) The pond is about 1 acre and there is a smaller pond (unattached to the bigger pond) on the property. The beaver have been trapped and removed so now only fish are in the pond, and there is a lot of them. I have been with the dept. for 2 yrs. and have never been able to keep any bass out of the pond. I finally talked them into lifting that so we can get some of the bass out so the others have a chance to grow. I was wondering should i stock prey fish (golden shiners, flathead minnows, and sunfish) instead of predatory fish? Is there a Hybrid that I could order that would feed on some of the bass fingerling and juveniles that are infesting the pond? This is new to me so I am going to get the book "Raising Trophy Bass" by Bob Lusk. I know this is long and drawn out but I hope I didn't make a mistake in taking this job.( actualy I will be dealing with fish so it can't be a mistake)

[Marty]

Why not consult your Kansas DNR?

[Chris]

Asking the DNR is a great idea.  sometimes lakes get stunned and you have a large population of fish the same size. Bass eat bass along with other stuff. so if you have a large population of 3 inch bass i wouldn't worry to much because half of them will not live though the winter. most new lakes when they are stocked have 2 to 1 ratio or 3 to 1. meaning 3 bass to 1 bluegill. some stock catfish also. if a bass has a successful spawn it will lay lets say 80 eggs (just for arguement). Maybe 10 will make it to adult the rest die or get eaten. Maybe 4 will make it to be a 5 lb fish or bigger. But if you have a high survival rate of bass then those fish will never reach 5 lbs most will never grow any bigger than 2 or 3lbs the lake is stunned. its kinda like a fish tank. if you have a high population of fish in that tank the fish do not have enough food or room to grow so it will never grow to its full potential. but take the same tank and only have a few fish in it the fish have the room and food to grow and will grow much larger than the other fish.

[Pond-Pro]

           Just  remove the small bass, so that the bigger bass can grow bigger. Like Chris said, if you have 20 ten inch bass in a small pond, just remove 1o and you wiil get about ten twenty inch bass.

[Chris]

Let me add this and i am stupid for not thinking of this before. Add shad to the lake. I was watching a Jimmy Houston show and they where talking about the same problem and I was like oh yeah I forgot about that lol duh!