The Best way I have found to acclimate new fish is simply fill a 5 gallon bucket 1/3 up with the pond/lake water, open the bag and dump the bag into the bucket. 2 minutes and they are active and ready to dump in the body of water. 97% Survival of my bluegill and the last 600 bass I let go 100% survival. I pick my fish up at a hatchery 2 hours away, the fish have a 3 hour life span in the super oxygenated bags. You transported the fish right! With the bags standing up and not laying down. I am going to assume those are fathead minnows. You may as well plan on stocking a couple pounds of them every year. The good news is they are cheap :) The bad news is given your ponds size and established fish populations you most likely just are not going to be able to establish a sustainable breeding population. Fatheads primary purpose is to keep the bass from eating all of the bluegill in the initial stocking. After that they are just food supplement for the big bluegill and bass. Comparing our ponds is apples and oranges in most areas as you are in rock land and I am in heavy clay land. But what I did to support a sustainable minnow population in the lake was to put a 200' long row of 6" rip rap from shore to 4' out into a area that slopes from 4" deep to 2' deep and let 10 pounds of minnows go in the rocks. Then 2 Months later stocked 2000 bluegill, 500 Red Ear and 400 bass in the lake. I am taking the slow, let them grow into each other and establish and balance out approach. I also started with billions of crawdads already here and billions more tadpoles that had 10 Months to fully populate the lake and ponds. Right now the bass I stocked spend their time cruising the hard clay shallows eating and gorging on the little crawdads and tadpoles. Not very many have even moved down to the end of the lake with the rocks and minnows habitat yet. The Bluegill and Redear sure have though and while not big enough to eat the minnows yet, they hide in the same rock structure. Anyway maybe a to scale line of rip rap in a out of the way corner would create a big enough habitat and hatching are to keep you in minnows. Another factor to consider is minnows require higher levels of Oxygen to live thrive and reproduce. Might check you Oxygen levels in the water and add a fountain or smaller paddle wheel if needed. Oxygen Levels are a factor for bass growth as well. Another factor is the water PH that is a big factor in bass health and growth, I shoot for 6.5 to 7 PH. BEFORE you fertilize you might want to know what your water PH is as the fertilizer can change it and you might be compounding your problem if you go the wrong direction. And I have no idea what your bass stocking rate was but if you put more in than the bluegill and natural food sources can feed you will have nothing but small bass all the same size competing for not enough food and staying small. My best guess is that it is a combination of Not Enough Oxygen, the PH out of willy whack and more bass than the bluegill can support. Those are the usual culprits as stand alone or in combination for small fish in smaller ponds. LOL Kind of funny I saw this video while I was uploading a couple of pond videos I made this morning.
I’ll try to go over and check out your videos. Sounds like you’ve got a dream setup! If I remember right, our stocking rate was 75 cats, 200bg, 100 red ear, and 50 bass. Along with 15lb of fathead minnows. Then this 10lb fatheads a couple years later. We honestly don’t catch many bass, but when we do they are 10-12” and I definitely feel like they should be bigger at this point.
@@PeeksPeakHobbyHomestead That sounds about right for you pond. The Cats might be a bit hard on the bluegill and out competing the bass in the food chain. When I retired I decided to do stuff I wanted for ME instead of working for everyone else for a change. When I bought the bigger place a large reason I chose where I did was to eventually build the lake and 2 terraced ponds on the north and south arms. I got the North arm done last summer. I might get the South arm done this summer, if not then next summer. LOL just did not think when I bought the place that it take me 15 years to get around to building bodies of water.
I have a similar issue I'm looking for a good answer to I hope your minnows last. Have you considered adding artificial structure something like the mossback products to create ambush spots for the bass to sit and wait instead of swimming around hunting?
Yeah, so when we built the pond we actually made some of those structures of our own. We also stacked cinder block towers and other piles of rocks to try and creat cover. We still are seeing minnows so far. 🤞🏼👊
I've heard a few Christmas trees with a brick tied to the base makes awesome minnow habitat. We would tie a rope on the brick so we could retrieve the tree when it got broken down and wasn't providing enough cover.
Would planting trees along the sunny side help they fish? I do not have a pond myself. We have several quarry ponds out back and they have lots of fish, frogs and leeches. Take care and stay safe. From Petawawa, Ontario.
I really don’t know, but I would like to plant some trees over near that field area just to make it more secluded. Man, growing up I caught some big ole bass in quarry ponds. That sounds nice!
@@PeeksPeakHobbyHomestead all I'm saying is that we need Trump back, im tired of the woke fools trying to ruin the sport of fishing for us country folk
I've got no tips, but Ill be looking forward to further updates!
Thanks! Good to hear from you, Man!
Try Tastycake cupcakes....that's puts weight on me pretty quick! 🤷♂
I’ll trow a few out next time I feed. Lol. 🧁🧁🧁
The Best way I have found to acclimate new fish is simply fill a 5 gallon bucket 1/3 up with the pond/lake water, open the bag and dump the bag into the bucket. 2 minutes and they are active and ready to dump in the body of water. 97% Survival of my bluegill and the last 600 bass I let go 100% survival. I pick my fish up at a hatchery 2 hours away, the fish have a 3 hour life span in the super oxygenated bags. You transported the fish right! With the bags standing up and not laying down. I am going to assume those are fathead minnows. You may as well plan on stocking a couple pounds of them every year. The good news is they are cheap :) The bad news is given your ponds size and established fish populations you most likely just are not going to be able to establish a sustainable breeding population. Fatheads primary purpose is to keep the bass from eating all of the bluegill in the initial stocking. After that they are just food supplement for the big bluegill and bass. Comparing our ponds is apples and oranges in most areas as you are in rock land and I am in heavy clay land. But what I did to support a sustainable minnow population in the lake was to put a 200' long row of 6" rip rap from shore to 4' out into a area that slopes from 4" deep to 2' deep and let 10 pounds of minnows go in the rocks. Then 2 Months later stocked 2000 bluegill, 500 Red Ear and 400 bass in the lake. I am taking the slow, let them grow into each other and establish and balance out approach. I also started with billions of crawdads already here and billions more tadpoles that had 10 Months to fully populate the lake and ponds. Right now the bass I stocked spend their time cruising the hard clay shallows eating and gorging on the little crawdads and tadpoles. Not very many have even moved down to the end of the lake with the rocks and minnows habitat yet. The Bluegill and Redear sure have though and while not big enough to eat the minnows yet, they hide in the same rock structure. Anyway maybe a to scale line of rip rap in a out of the way corner would create a big enough habitat and hatching are to keep you in minnows. Another factor to consider is minnows require higher levels of Oxygen to live thrive and reproduce. Might check you Oxygen levels in the water and add a fountain or smaller paddle wheel if needed. Oxygen Levels are a factor for bass growth as well. Another factor is the water PH that is a big factor in bass health and growth, I shoot for 6.5 to 7 PH. BEFORE you fertilize you might want to know what your water PH is as the fertilizer can change it and you might be compounding your problem if you go the wrong direction. And I have no idea what your bass stocking rate was but if you put more in than the bluegill and natural food sources can feed you will have nothing but small bass all the same size competing for not enough food and staying small. My best guess is that it is a combination of Not Enough Oxygen, the PH out of willy whack and more bass than the bluegill can support. Those are the usual culprits as stand alone or in combination for small fish in smaller ponds. LOL Kind of funny I saw this video while I was uploading a couple of pond videos I made this morning.
I’ll try to go over and check out your videos. Sounds like you’ve got a dream setup! If I remember right, our stocking rate was 75 cats, 200bg, 100 red ear, and 50 bass. Along with 15lb of fathead minnows. Then this 10lb fatheads a couple years later. We honestly don’t catch many bass, but when we do they are 10-12” and I definitely feel like they should be bigger at this point.
@@PeeksPeakHobbyHomestead That sounds about right for you pond. The Cats might be a bit hard on the bluegill and out competing the bass in the food chain. When I retired I decided to do stuff I wanted for ME instead of working for everyone else for a change. When I bought the bigger place a large reason I chose where I did was to eventually build the lake and 2 terraced ponds on the north and south arms. I got the North arm done last summer. I might get the South arm done this summer, if not then next summer. LOL just did not think when I bought the place that it take me 15 years to get around to building bodies of water.
Fertilizing a super easy. They sell 5 lb bags at tractor supply. I just put one of those in for acre during summer months makes a huge difference.
Nice, thanks! Is it specific. For ponds or do you just broadcast regular 19-19-19 or something similar?
I have a similar issue I'm looking for a good answer to I hope your minnows last. Have you considered adding artificial structure something like the mossback products to create ambush spots for the bass to sit and wait instead of swimming around hunting?
Yeah, so when we built the pond we actually made some of those structures of our own. We also stacked cinder block towers and other piles of rocks to try and creat cover. We still are seeing minnows so far. 🤞🏼👊
good deal man sounds like you got a nice pond that will last a long time. Best wishes from Estill Co. :)
@@PeeksPeakHobbyHomestead
I've heard a few Christmas trees with a brick tied to the base makes awesome minnow habitat. We would tie a rope on the brick so we could retrieve the tree when it got broken down and wasn't providing enough cover.
We did bluegill and hybrid bluegill in our pond
Nice! We have channel cats, bluegill, redear, and largemouth.
Forgot thread fin shad
Would planting trees along the sunny side help they fish? I do not have a pond myself. We have several quarry ponds out back and they have lots of fish, frogs and leeches. Take care and stay safe. From Petawawa, Ontario.
I really don’t know, but I would like to plant some trees over near that field area just to make it more secluded. Man, growing up I caught some big ole bass in quarry ponds. That sounds nice!
How to I get my ping clear? 2 years old and still dingy/muddy
Start taking little bass out of your pond
Don't forget to put Cat, Brim and Shrimp fish in there
Oh yeah, we stocked catfish, bluegill, and redear a couple years ago along with largemouth. Everything is growing great except the bass.
Have to handle them easy
I suppose you voted for Joe Biden and have one of them pellet grills
What on earth are you talking about?!
@@PeeksPeakHobbyHomestead all I'm saying is that we need Trump back, im tired of the woke fools trying to ruin the sport of fishing for us country folk
I’m an avid fisherman, outdoorsman, and about as country as you can get. What gave you the impression I’m trying to ruin the sport?
@PeeksPeakHobbyHomestead I thought you seem like one of those rich men from North of Richmond
Must have been the straight piped diesel truck. 😂🤣. First time in my life I’ve been mistaken for anything other than a hillbilly.
Hot truck ride with the sun hitting them killed those minnows. Should have put them inside the cab with AC
I’d say you are right…
Also, standing the bags on end trap some minnows on the corners. Lay the bag flat.