# Taking fish from one pond to another????



## Putty (Jul 22, 2013)

Pond I fish all the time has large mouth and catfish only. Another pond I visit has small mouth. Would it cause problems if I kept some of the small mouths and released them in the other pond?


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## Bubbagon (Mar 8, 2010)

Moving fish from one body of water to another is a general no-no. 
Call DNR, ask for advise and legalities.


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## Putty (Jul 22, 2013)

Thanks! I was not sure. Reason I asked.


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## Sciotodarby (Jul 27, 2013)

I'd make sure the landowner is OK with it before I did anything if they're private ponds.


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## timmyv (Apr 26, 2006)

Private ponds are okay to do so as long as you own the one you are putting fish in and or have permission from the landowner as said already.


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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

I would check with both owners before I started moving fish. just ask the guy with the sm if it would be ok to move a few fish to another pond. and ask the guy with the lm if it would be ok to add a few sm.

I would check with the dnr just to make sure it is legal to move the fish. I'm pretty sure its legal to do this on private land. but the laws differ on public land.

this was in Indiana but we held little tournaments where I worked. there was this one guy who owned a nice pond. and after the weigh in he would ask for fish to go in his pond. there was always a dnr officer hanging around and he never said anything to him about taking these fish. but he took all kinds of fish and always had over his legal limit. maby he talked to the dnr officer before he took the fish. but he took lm and sm bass and crappie and gills and even some cat fish and yellow perch.
sherman


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

As long as the landowners are okay with it, it's perfectly legal. It's also legal in public waters as long as you aren't introducing a new species.


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## Bubbagon (Mar 8, 2010)

Wow. The level of bad advice knows no boundaries here.

Call the darn DNR. Other than listening to others guess.
Forget one second about whether or not it's legal. 
How much do you know about pond management? What species, how many per acre, etc...
And then there's the whole issue of introducing an invasive species, or parasites, or disease.

Quite honestly, it's a horrible idea unless you reach out to professionals.


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Bubbagon said:


> Wow. The level of bad advice knows no boundaries here.
> 
> Call the darn DNR. Other than listening to others guess.
> Forget one second about whether or not it's legal.
> ...



Get off your high horse, no one here said it was a good idea. This has been discussed so many times, it&#8217;s no longer funny. The head of the DNR was called years ago, and that&#8217;s where the final answer came from. It IS legal, the only one guessing is you. Perhaps you should refrain from giving legal advice if you don&#8217;t actually know the answer. Whether it&#8217;s a good idea or not is a different subject entirely, but it&#8217;s perfectly legal.


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## Bubbagon (Mar 8, 2010)

How do you know, from the information given, that what he's suggesting is legal? All I heard was "taking smallies from one pond to another pond".
Public ponds? Apartment ponds? Park ponds? Private ponds?

Yesterday he was asking what temperature the bass stopped eating, so I'm going out on a limb and guessing he doesn't understand a whole lot about pond management.
So how do you expect him to know if he's "accidentally" introducing an invasive species? Or even if the other pond will support smallies?

Disease, parasites and invasive species aside, there are plenty of local fish that if they went into a pond would completely take over the pond and ruin it.

He needs to call the DNR.


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## tpat (Apr 4, 2008)

It is NOT permitted in public waters under any circumstance. Check your fishing regs. It's one of the first rules listed.


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## imalt (Apr 17, 2008)

If you have two good ponds to fish at I would leave them alone. Why take a chance on introducing a fish or disease that may wipeout one pond. I don't think it is worth the risk legal or not.


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## Putty (Jul 22, 2013)

Geez!! Didn't mean to cause a war. The ponds I am referring to are public ponds. The one with the LM I fish more and the thought of some SMs in it came to mind. I started fishing the other and caught some SMs and thought what would happen if I tossed a few in the other pond. The fact some say it's not a good idea means I'll just leave it alone. I'll just visit each for different things. 
I don't know anything about pond upkeep or what species are placed for what reasons, I just fish for fun and release all I catch. 

Thanks for the replies.


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## Net (Apr 10, 2004)

Putty, this topic is a good example of why the moderators move stuff around from time to time. Had you asked your same question in our _Pond Management_ forum you'd stand a better chance of avoiding the feeding frenzy that tends to occur in the fishing reports. Not to mention we have some pretty knowledgeable pond owners over there. Your question may have already been answered.


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## Putty (Jul 22, 2013)

Net said:


> Putty, this topic is a good example of why the moderators move stuff around from time to time. Had you asked your same question in our _Pond Management_ forum you'd stand a better chance of avoiding the feeding frenzy that tends to occur in the fishing reports. Not to mention we have some pretty knowledgeable pond owners over there. Your question may have already been answered.


I apologize for placing this in the wrong forum. Didn't even think to look for such a forum. 

Thanks!


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Bubbagon said:


> How do you know, from the information given, that what he's suggesting is legal? All I heard was "taking smallies from one pond to another pond".
> Public ponds? Apartment ponds? Park ponds? Private ponds?
> 
> Yesterday he was asking what temperature the bass stopped eating, so I'm going out on a limb and guessing he doesn't understand a whole lot about pond management.
> ...


Point taken, you're absolutely right. I ASSumed they were private ponds. He never actually said that. My apologies.


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## Bubbagon (Mar 8, 2010)

No sweat.
And you got me thinking so I took a little ride (on my high horse  ) down to the District One office. 
I spoke with, I think, a deputy director named Karl. Two things that surprised me:
He didn't know the answer off the top of his head. He called a law enforcement officer and found out that transporting fish from a public body of water to a private pond is legal (given said fish is caught legally). 
That also surprised me with all the concern over invasive species, VHS, etc...
But he did say without question that fish can not be caught and then placed in any public body of water.

Trying to find the right information via reading the fishing regulations, is misleading and difficult at best.


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Bubbagon said:


> No sweat.
> 
> But he did say without question that fish can not be caught and then placed in any public body of water.


This is the part that no one can agree on. According to the head guy with the ODNR, at least at the time Misfit asked, it was legal as long as the species already existed in the body of water. It shouldn't be okay, but according to him, as long as a new species wasn't being introduced it was. That would explain why they use the word "introduce" in the regulations. However I think most people, law makers included, interpret it as being illegal and nothing changes. They really need to clarify and/or change the law, and then make it very clear in the regulations.


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## Bubbagon (Mar 8, 2010)

Agreed.
MANY of the regulations are soupy and murky. 
I'm a guy who genuinely has no interest in operating outside of the regulations. And when you go to your district office, and ask the question, and even they are unsure, then obviously the laws are unclear.

I would find it really surprising if the law allowed for an individual, any individual, to take a fish from God knows where, and place it in a public body of water.
Asian carp, snake heads, VHS, parasites....a whole can of worms would be opened that may never be able to get closed.
There would have to be a huge assumption that the person transporting said fish could even identify it properly to know if they were introducing a new species, and they would have to have intimate knowledge of what that body of water already contains.

I have no confidence that most anglers could discern between a redear sunfish (good pond fish) and a green sunfish (bad pond fish). Much less between a large mouth, small mouth, or spotted bass.

There's just soooo much that could go badly. I'd like to think our DNR would have more sense than to allow just anyone with the urge to transport fish to public waters.
But who knows....


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## Sciotodarby (Jul 27, 2013)

It's my guess that the laws they have about moving native fish from one body of water to the other were made with common baitfish in mind. Such as chubs, shiners, bluegills, etc. That way it's "legal" to dump your bait bucket when you're done fishing and really doesn't pertain to backyard biologists transplanting fish. Like Bubba says, it's murky because of proper identification and that's really true with various sunfish and minnows.


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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

Putty said:


> Geez!! Didn't mean to cause a war. The ponds I am referring to are public ponds. The one with the LM I fish more and the thought of some SMs in it came to mind. I started fishing the other and caught some SMs and thought what would happen if I tossed a few in the other pond. The fact some say it's not a good idea means I'll just leave it alone. I'll just visit each for different things.
> I don't know anything about pond upkeep or what species are placed for what reasons, I just fish for fun and release all I catch.
> 
> Thanks for the replies.


I to made the assumption that these were private ponds. but as they are public ponds then its not even legal to dump live bait in the water. so just do as you say and fish both ponds. I fished a local lake for yrs thinking it only had lm bass in it. then one day I was trolling close to a shoreline with little bass magnet crank baits and lo and behold I caught 2 sm bass. I have no idea if this lake had always had sm or if some good person had stocked them in the small lake. so just keep fishing both lakes and you never know what you might catch, LOL.
sherman


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## HatersGonnaHate (Jun 4, 2013)

The chances of introducing anything that is going to kill the fish is very slim. I dont know why everyone is so against this and keeps preaching that its the worst idea ever. I have done this many times in a pond that was overstocked with small bluegill. I caught legal pass and transported them into my pond and they thinned out the bluegill. Then i transported the biggest couple panfish i would catch each trip out into the lake and now my pond is by far better than it was.


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## imalt (Apr 17, 2008)

HatersGonnaHate said:


> The chances of introducing anything that is going to kill the fish is very slim. I dont know why everyone is so against this and keeps preaching that its the worst idea ever. I have done this many times in a pond that was overstocked with small bluegill. I caught legal pass and transported them into my pond and they thinned out the bluegill. Then i transported the biggest couple panfish i would catch each trip out into the lake and now my pond is by far better than it was.


putting them in your pond is ok but if you are taking fish and putting them in public waters you are breaking the law.


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## HatersGonnaHate (Jun 4, 2013)

imalt said:


> putting them in your pond is ok but if you are taking fish and putting them in public waters you are breaking the law.


Yeah agreed. I am talking if you catch a big fish out of a lake and release it into your pond the chances of it spreading a disease are slim. It would be like a person moving to another country. Its possible the could spread illness but not very likely.


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Smallmouth will live with largemouth but largemouth will outcompete them. If you stock smallmouth in a pond with a relatively unmanaged largemouth population I would expect the smallmouth to lose weight and would not expect reproduction to occur so the most likely long term result will be a skinny novelty catch.

It is not unlawful to transfer fish from public to private waters. Exponentially more fish are transferred from private to public through flooding and private outflows than private lake owners are taking fish to stock their ponds.

Fish raised in one body of water will not necessarily thrive in another. Traits good for one environment may not be good for another and the age of the fish being transferred is unknown (unless your skilled scale sampling and aging fish). Fish never stop growing until they die but they only live so long. A 16" 3 or 4 year old fish has much greater chance of reaching 21 or 22" than a 16" fish that 10 years old.

Start with proven genes/ages and/or manage populations/food/water quality.


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## rustyfish (Apr 27, 2004)

Most of us have been through this before. Fact is the only one here that is wrong is the ODNR. I think they do a good job but they really need to clear all the grey area out of the regulations.

I have trouble with the wording. Transport and introduce? Can you introduce without transporting? (no) So why would it say both? So why does it not say transport OR introduce? But if you can't transport at all then why would they need to put introduce in their at all? The worst wording possible.

Coming from a fish management background I can tell you the origin of this concept has three factors.
1. stop introduction of non natives 
2. stop spread of new diseases
3. Stop interference with the management and stocking practices of lakes involved

So these regulations were originally put in the books to stop people from moving any fish. But they have adapted over time with the demand of live bait. So an exception was made for minnows and shiners. Then some forage fish and sunfish. The interpretation of the regulation has changed and currently makes no sense as written. 

Keeping a legal fish to use as bait at another body of water that contains that species---nothing will ever be said to you by ODNR. But I fully believe that making a habit of taking game fish from one public body of water back to your local public body of water will land you in trouble. ODNR has stocking programs and they don't want you doing it for them.


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Here's the response I received from the State on 10/5/2011

_"You can catch fish by legal angling methods, with proper fishing licenses, and put them in a land locked pond (where water does not flow into or out of &#8211; like from or to a stream). If you do put them in a private pone, you cannot charge people to fish for the fish, nor can you sell the fish. The regulations are not the &#8220;full&#8221; set of laws and regulations that apply, but, are only a concise version. The Ohio Revised Code and Administrative Code are the full laws and regulations. 



Thanks, 
Michelle 
1-800-945-3543



Follow The Division of Wildlife: 
www.wildohio.com 
www.facebook.com/ohiodivisionofwildlife 
www.twitter.com/OhioDivWildlife 
www.youtube.com/user/TheOhioDNR "_


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