maintaining a small farm pond

[telecaster]

This has probably been covered but anyway, Lets say you have a small pond,it has a nice deep spot 12+feet,good vegitation but not choked at all (a mass of a kind of thick muck that floats around the middle)I'll do more research on that. A big frog population,some salamanders,bugs,and several sunturtles.Lets say for instance you introduced bass to this pond,they thrive on froggys and such,and this year they produce a small litter of little bass.I know that bass are canibalistic and will eat many of the young,probably not a bad thing.The Question is how can you maintain the population and size of the fish in the pond,so you dont end-up with a small pond with a bunch of small fish?

[NEBassMan]

Harvest.  If you don't like to keep bass to eat, maybe you have some friends that do?  Although, then more people know about your honey hole

Jason

[telecaster]

The pond is on private property,so other folks are not an issue 8-) .This is new,the population of mature bass is very small.We would like to see more(bass) but not enough to stunt the fish in the pond.I guess next year will really tell the tale as to how many of the young survive,but Its good to learn things ahead of time so you might know what to expect.

[NEBassMan]

Where are you from?  Will the pond freezing solid be a problem this winter?

Jason

[Lip Ripper 87]

Last year we built a pond on our property. About 1 arche.

We left it substain for one year.

This spring we stocked it from a hatchery. 50 bass , 100 bluegill, 100 perch, and 1000 minnows. Also 27 other bass, catfish and bluegill from nearby water holes.

The biggest bass in our pond is around 16 inchs.

All the baby bass that we put in were about a fingerlength long, now they are around 9" !!!

We feed them everyday around 7pm and they're ready to eat when we come. pariannas!

Before we loaded the water with fish, tadpoles almost completely covered the bottom. Now there are none. Lots of frogs still though. Good food for growth ;D

I am excited to see the growth in the next couple years.

Maybe i'll post some pics later.

I kind of got carried away, but with most manmade ponds, with the right speicies of fish and food for them, the pond will maintain its self. There is still more to it than that, just have to do some research. Should be found easily. Hope this helps.

-Casey

[alhuff]

as long as you have a bait fish in the pond, ie. bluegill, you will be fine.  

Alfred