Pond Management - For better fish growth
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2024
- Steve Fender of Fender's Fish Hatchery in Baltic, Ohio discusses overall pond management, and managing your body of water for better fish growth. Discussion includes:
- growing big bass, catfish, bluegill, and other fish
- balancing your pond to start out
- balance of forage and predator fish
- enhancing the growth of your body of water overall
- good pond management and fish stocking
- feeding your fish for optimal growth
- ways to ensure good growth
- how feeding can affect fishing
- guidelines to prevent stunted fish growth
Don't forget, when you stop by the hatchery to pick up your fish, you can request a copy of Pond Management: The Common Sense Guide, the complete revised second edition by Steve Fender. This book will guide you through all the information you need to know in owning a small pond or big lake when stocking and managing, from the geographical areas of Northern Ohio all the way to Southern Ohio.
Fender's Fish Hatchery is located at:
50665 Township Road 220
Baltic, Ohio, 43812
More information can be found at:
www.FendersFishHatchery.com
And if you have any questions, feel free to give the hatchery or Steve a call at the numbers listed in the video.
my left ear liked it
Same
Honestly, this is more sound advice than we have gotten from Department of Conservation. Thank you so much!!!!
Yeah. This is true
I’m restocking a renovated 1 acre pond and doing a lot of research. This presentation was by far the most helpful to me. Thank You, Steve!
What u said man! He is solid content for sure
Well, how did the fish do these last 4 years?
This guy is 1st class 👏
He is spot on. I stocked my slightly over 1 acre pond with 6 bass (small and large mouth) 12 blue gill and 25 fathead minnows. I then fed them with trophy fish floating pelets, around 150 lbs per summer. It is now 4 years later and we just had a small group of kids catch at least a dozen bass around the 2.5 to 3.5 lb range and over 20 gills in the 1.5 hand range. Good fighters too. I initially also aerated and Alge controlled, but my pond appears to have reached a good balance now so I'm letting nature do it's thing. I've really enjoyed getting this pond back in shape (new water supply, drainage, etc) and love seeing kids faces light up when the catch a nice one. I also used to enforce a catch and release, but now I'm allowing 1 bass per person and a group limit of 15 gills. Seems to be working great. I limit the number of visits to prevent over fishing, which I can usually tell by how aggressive the gills are when I feed them (plus the smart bass who follow behind me to get a free meal on unsuspecting gills).
What feed do you use? Purina Aquamax 400 now costs $64.00 per 50 lb bag. I had to go to a less expensive feed. Gamefish chow for $43.00 per bag. Bluegill don't like it as much though.
thanks for the tips I have 10 plus 1 lb bluegills and I put bass in Last year the we're a half a pound and now they are 2lbs
How many bass
Baltic, OH? Wow! I love what they did with the new restaurant. Best fried chicken I've ever had.
Greetings from South Carolina.
Ayyyy I’m from sc to 🇺🇸🏈
We stocked 500 bluegills (250 hybrid and 250 regular) 30 bass and 25 channel cat. We were worried about not getting bites! This puts me at ease as we haven’t found any dead fish. It’s been 2 years so I’m hoping next year will be great!
bluegill 3/10ths oz can bed. 37 years experience here. bluegill need to be fed 3-4 times a day. their gut is small, keep it full. Also you can feed bluegill much more feed than this vedio suggests, as long as your water doesent get pea green. I live in Alabama.
Excellent explanations, thank you!
I have perch, bluegill,largemouth, and catfish in my pond
Cool story, bro
Nice Professional Advice ,Thanks Steve!
The most expensive way to grow fish is to throw pellets and fathead minnows at them. The best habitat designs don't need pellets or continually stocking prey fish.
You can do that. But these people want to boost fish populations as fast as possible and aren't afraid to spend money to do so. They probably have a lot of family members taking fish so they feed to boost the population.
I just want to feed my family some fish.
Thank you for this great presentation. Very educational. Do geese pose a problem for bass in the pond? Every year we have these Canadian geese that are domesticated (?) that do not migrate and just live on the pond. We have around 20 of them right now always hanging out at the pond pooping like crazy!
The goose shit will cause unwanted algae blooms that can lead to fish kills if not managed properly. I don't let geese on my pond for that reason.
@@justinxiao9098 Thank you for the info!
Fish that are fed on pellets will bite an empty hook. They eat anything that hits the water.
sometimes that is the case but it can be because the feed the pond owner is using isn't a good protein and the fish aren't getting want they need . also it does make the fish tame so if there are kids that want to fish, the fish are easier to catch so it makes it easier for the kids to get hooked on fishing .
But last year when I stoked it with gills and perch the bit for fishing is horrible. Have any tips
I have a 1.5 acre pond full of largemouth bass only! I want to add bluegill. How many and shouldn't I add full grown bluegill since it already has bass?
You fucked up.
Stock adult bluegill
Go to the closest big lake and take 25-50 gills from there to your pond(don’t know if it’s exactly legal) and do that till you put in about 500 gills
Id like to stock my pond with minnows like you said to. How do I get my correct ratio to acreage of predator to prey??? Ive had 3 major fish kills happen in a 3 winter spell. Didnt this year tho. When I began fishing my pond in spring 2016, I caught an notched all fish caught to 'count' my population. I caught 50 6" and below small mouth bass in 4 hours, 20 6 inch and below blue gill, 10 6 inch and below grass carp, 5 6 inch and below catfish. I have cleared pond of alot of branch debris and created a 'beach shallow' area with small rock base. Left one side with brush for hiding. Pond is 19 foot deep side. Pond is a water shed and collects rain water from a nearby field.
Hi Christopher can you give me a call at 740-502-5454, let me know you saw my video and you have some questions and I'll get them answered for you. Sorry for not getting back to you sooner.
what about grass eating carp to clean your banks? I have a small pond that we had fish in cats and bass and some brim. 3yrs ago they all died probably because duckweed took over- I have killed most of it but what next
duckweed is a fertility problem , using beneficial bacteria and bottom aeration will starve the duckweed out . this takes some time but it will work . give me a call and i can go into more detail
thank you that helps and confirms my suspicions
also what should i use for cleaning muck from the bottom that has sit for 3 yrs bc i have not had a chance to do anything till now and all the fish died but i want to add some- what can I add to help the pond? both product and fish
@@lorricasnerbasara4864 check out our nature's pond conditioner it will break down all the black muck . go to our website and you can order it there or call us for more info
Got a pond that’s probably about an acre at my parents’ The fish are easy to catch. Both bluegill and the bass. Seems like there are tons of both but both species are small. Caught one 6lb bass a few years ago. Other than that it’s like every bass is 1lb or slightly under. It’s like reeling in the same bass 20 times a day. Is it over populated? Should I keep more fish or not keep any?
It’s overpopulated
It’s over populated my father had a 2 acre pond just as you described. Things you can do to fix the problem is one as in the video feed the fish minnows. Second fish and remove a large amount of the bluegills that are to large for the bass to eat and thin out some of the bass. That will allow the reminding fish to grow with the increased amount of food.
What are your recommendations for a Virginia pond with Pond algae overtaking the pond?
What treatment do you recommend that won't harm the fish?
You need to treat the reason for the algae growth or it will come right back. Are you raking and cleaning around the pond of leaves and limbs? This can accumulate and cause algae bloom resulting in fish kills due to lack of oxygen in the pond
@@thestonedhippo Fertilizer runoff too.
Lmao only had my right earbud in
Caleb Payne lol me too!
I have a pond full of stubborn 3 pound bass
Nice video!
I’m not making a bass pond but any chance you could help me with a general pond health question? I recently found a small retention pond with only golden shiners in it and there are thousands of them. They’re literally everywhere u look whole schools of them and I’ve never seen another type of fish in the pond. I think it’s kinda cool to have such a unique little pond nearby (and it makes a good bait source) so I don’t really wanna stock anything that will eat them as I like having so many of them to look at but I’ve been told it’s not sustainable to their diet and they’ll be at greater risk of disease. Any idea of fish I could stock that would help them survive with out eating too many of them. I would like to maintain their abundance since I like looking at them but I also don’t want to risk the health of the fish since I do use them as a bait source there is already snakes turtles bullfrogs birds etc in the area so I don’t think lack of predation is the problem the guy made it sound more like lack of diversity leads to a choke on nutrients and higher chance of disease. If this is true I would like to prevent this withouth putting too much of a dwindle on their numbers. Any tips on good species to stock that would cohabitate well while also helping with these problems? Also would this even be legal of me to do it’s a public pond? If all else fails I could probably turn it into a great little bass pond but I’d honestly rather keep it as a bait pond/cool place to visit it’s just nice having something so unique nearby ya know? I’d like to help sustain it if I could. TIA
pretty much anything you put in the pond that would eat the shiners will probably reproduce and take over without something else to counter against that predator and then that fish would become over populated . i would try to feed the shiners either with a commercial fish food or you could use a little fertilizer to keep the zooplankton up for the shiners to feed on .some of your farm supply stores will often sell pond fertilizers , you just have to be careful not to use the wrong fertilizer or too much . the feed would be the safest way
@@fendersfishhatchery560 I didn’t mean predatory fish tho I was wondering if there was other bait fish I could stock in it that wouldn’t compete for the same food source I want to increase the diversity in the pond without risking decreasing the overall amount of fish in the pond. There’s literally fish everywhere you look rn I want the same thing but not just shiners. Hope this helps clarify what I meant and thanks for the quick response tho but I’m thinkin I might just leave it as is.
@@clintsingleton3846 I didn’t mean predatory fish tho I was thinking other bait fish that might have a different food source. If the different food source isn’t an issue tho is there other issues I’d have to worry about would I be fine stocking other bait fish or do u suggest against any stocking at all it’s pretty cool as is. Never seen a pond with so many fish I really don’t wanna risk messing it up but it seems a shame it’s only shiners. I was thinkin maybe black dace or fathead minnow cuz there both native to me but idk if them competing for food would be bad for the shiners I’m fairly confident that there’s no other fish it used to be a frog pond when I was a kid with no signs of fish life so I thought adding to its diversity would be nice if it could still sustain the same numbers. Do u think it’s worth trying or is it too big of a risk to the shiners?
@@clintsingleton3846 thank you that is all very helpful I’d imagine that black Dace wouldn’t feed on shiner fry where they’re so small but I’ll have to look it up to make sure. I wouldn’t want to risk it. Sadly tho I don’t feel comfortable adding fish food to the pond as it’s not a private pond n my state has laws against chumming so even tho there’s no gamefish in the pond most people don’t know that n I still don’t wanna be seen dumping fish food into it lol. I do wish I could get a biologist out there tho. Not only is the ecosystem cool but the story’s pretty cool too. From what I understand it was actually a sort of mini quarry for when they built the local stretch of nearby highway. My buddy’s dad who lives near the pond knows a little bit about it n supposedly they only got about 8 feet down before they hit a spring n it filled up with water. It did have fish for a little bit I guess but he said they all were fished out by the 70s and this is the first time either of us have known of any fish taking hold there since but it’s just shiners and it’s already been a few years so there’s clearly nothing eating them yet n it seems healthy enough to survive I’m very interested to see what will happen there is a sizable wetland with a stream nearby too so if we get any real bad storms some fish might just stock themselves lol. I feel like I’m watching the birth of an ecosystem tho it’s pretty cool.
What do you recommended use for building artificial brush?
Nice video, very helpful. How many CAT fish do you recommend in one acre? Any thumb rule for other fish?
Syed i recommend 100 per acre but only if you plan to harvest and /or feed . catfish are very aggressive eaters and if left to forage on what is in the pond they will become the dominate predator. you probably will need to restock as you harvest because reproduction survival in farm ponds is low
steve fender Thanks a lot. I appreciate your prompt reply. I am new, rather illiterate fish farmer. One of my friend is a fish farmer where he is stocking 25000 Tilapia. He insist I should jump in this farming and stock 30000, yes thirty thousand Catfish. He showed me a video in which a lady is feeding catfish. Looks like the catfish is jam packed in small pond.
If I stock 100 catfish and feed them fresh Tilapia, how long will it take to get get healthy Catfish results.
depends on where you are , how long the growing season is . if you would have a full year of growth you should be able to finish out a 4'' fish in one year
stock what you would like to harvest but keep in mind that cats will eat a lot of fish unless you feed them . feed them pellets they will leave the forage fish alone and you can stock as many as you would like
💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽
Hi, my fish pond has been drying out despite of fixing the leakage and even spreading agricultural gypsum, any idea how to stop that, will bentonite clay work?
Grab some good dye and find the source of the leak, then some clay or a liner and clay at the source. Good luck...pond leaks can be a real pain, and sometimes the only solution is to drain and re-line.
So If I have a pond on property that I only visit once a month or so but wanted to stock a pond with bass and bluegill, would feeding them a few thousand minnows a few times a year be an option, rather than having to feed them pellets more frequently?
Yes
how about clams in a large pond 20 acers freezes over all winter?
Adam could you clearify your question , i'm not sure what you are asking .sorry
steve fender what kind of clams could you put in the pond is it true they help clean the water?don't want zebra muscles been lucky not to get them!
Do you grow Trout ?
Can I put all of the bluegill and bass in right away? And do I have to feed the bluegills pellets?
Stocking the fish all at the same time is best and if you stock with the recommended ratio you won't have to feed. Feeding just speeds up growth
steve fender Thankyou this helped a lot👍👍👍
Can I. Share this on my Facebook page
The audio hurts my ears
Thanks for the video. great information. what happens in the winter months, do the feeding continue?
+admitaltamar all fish , not including trout , go dormant once the water temps drop below 55 . the fish will still feed a little on minnows but will not feed well on floating fish food . growth basically stops till the warm up in spring .
Just watch how they are eating as you feed them. Once it slows down, that is your sign to stop feeding. Reverse it in the summer. I'm in the north east, so we usually start feeding around April and stop around Sep/Oct. It all depends on the water temperature. 50F is the cutoff point.
How do you fix oversized bluegills
do you mean that the blue gill are too big ?
Fender's Fish Hatchery all the bluegill are 8-10 inches but all the bass are no bigger than 14 inches
@@cameronbrennemanoutdoors Take out some of them and stock 3-4 inches bluegill in the spring.
@@justinxiao9098 I had a make my neighbors pond great again movement😂 I took out 30 big gills and took out 11 10 inch bass and I put in like 50 crayfish 200 creekchubs couple smalls gills from creeks and 5 pounds of fat head minnows and I’m gonna do more stuff like that next summer
@@cameronbrennemanoutdoors How big is your pond in acres?
I've not seen to many farm stores (TSC example) sell a fish food higher then 36 percent protein. I noticed on the low end, you said anything 28 percent protein was not ideal. So would 36 percent be sufficient enough? My pond is relatively small, just under a half acre.
that's awesome man, I want my own pond someday too. what species do u stock?
No audio
invert your audio channels
left - voice
right - water flow
I want to have good eating fish on my 5 acre pond,I'm in Georgia,I don't particularly like to eat bass or catfish,I like walleye first then crappie,
I think it's too hot here for walleye.
Any advice will be appreciated.
Walleye don't live in the south.
Crappie need a shit ton of minnows
Shellcracker or hybrid bluegill. If the pond isn't established yet, you could spend a year or 2 getting it filled up with golden shiners, minnows, and mosquito fish. Then stock with crappie once the bait fish are breeding.
sound? lol
fish and lama😆
Can't catch fish in my pond after 10 years, too smart as well as a good living pond. The only way to get the Bass now is Bow Fishing, but it's fun and they never know what hit them.
What???
I bet he deliverers pizzas for a living. Cuz this isn't what the pond boss said.
@Taiterdee