| When
it comes time to put fish into a new or renovated private
pond, it’s important to have realistic expectations.
A lot of folks think that all they need to do is put in
a few of each of their favorite species and the fishing
will be just like it is in their favorite lake.
What
they forget is that a small pond ecosystem is very different
from a huge lake or bayou. In many ways, a small pond is
much closer in size to an aquarium than it is to the Atchafalaya
Basin. So, while you can have good fishing opportunities
in a small pond, the management of the pond can never be
too far from your mind.
The
first question to answer about stocking is: “How big
is the pond?”
A lot
of ponds are created as borrow-pits when soil is needed
for home foundations. Typically, these ponds are less than
an acre in size, very deep and cannot be drained by gravity.
While none of these aspects are preferred for fish ponds,
these ponds can provide fine fishing particularly for kids.
Maintaining
bass/bream balance in very small ponds can be tricky. With
limited numbers of fish, removal or loss of a few predators
(bass) or a few dozen prey (bream) can change the health
of the system. In these ponds, owners may want to consider
single-species stocking.
Stocking
only catfish in these ponds often creates a put-and-take
fishery, which will require occasional additions of fingerlings.
Stocking hybrid bream alone can also provide good fishing
for several years, but since reproduction of these fish
is inconsistent, pond owners should be prepared to renovate
(remove all fish and restock) after a few years. In any
case, small ponds often need “biological renovation”
more often than larger ponds.
Owners
with larger, leveed ponds (more than 1 acre) have the most
options for stocking. Bass and bream populations are easier
to keep balanced, and other species can be added for some
lagniappe. Redear sunfish (chinqapin) will use some different
foods than the bluegill, and channel cats can provide additional
fishing excitement (and good eating) without interfering
with the bass and bream.
This
gets us into the next question: “What type of fishing
does the pond owner want?”
Since
so many people love to fish for bass and sac-au-lait, these
are often the first species a new pond owner wants to stock.
Bass are generally fine for any pond, except that they are
very easy to overfish in small ponds. Sac-au-lait are another
story. While some pond owners have had decent luck with
crappie, most regret stocking them. Reproduction is completely
unpredictable, with some ponds having no spawning at all
and others tremendous spawns. In the latter case, the pond
has thousands of little sac-au-lat that don’t have
enough food. They’ll all be four inches long and as
thick as two sheets of newspaper. Crappie are recommended
only for very large ponds or small lakes – more than
10 acres.
Another
question concerns the owners desire to catch fish for the
table. Bluegill and catfish can produce a steady supply
of good eating, but folks who take too many bass out of
their ponds usually get an out-of-balance situation with
too many small bream. This makes the bass situation even
worse, because the hordes of stunted bluegill will swarm
every bass bedding attempt and eat all the eggs. Again,
the smallest ponds have the greatest need for very careful
management of how many bass are removed.
At the
other end of the spectrum are pond owners who want to remove
very few fish. This can cause problems, too. Folks who want
to grow their fish to the largest possible sizes sometimes
are very disappointed if environmental problems arise.
If oxygen
depletion ever occurs, the largest fish will be the first
to die. And in most ponds, the best way to produce large
bluegill is to keep up a reasonable harvest. Since the food
supply in a pond is finite, too many sunfish will result
in the food resources being divided into too many little
mouths, and none of the fish will get very large.
Back
to Top |
