# 2010 spawn??



## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

I am curious how the other pond owners in Ohio spawn went this year?? My pond is almost 4 years old now and I stocked 3-5" or 4-6" fish my first spring and basically had zero spawn the first year, and almost zero spawn the second year but then last year i had a fair spawn based on YOY fish/number of redds and even took a few yearling crappies last winter and only a few smaller blue gills/red ears and hybrid gills. Now this spring it appears I had a great successful spawn as I have caught dozens of YOY Gills, a few YOY Black crappies , and as of yesterday, got 2- 4" Yellow Perch which is the first sign of a spawn from them since I stocked them 4 years ago. I even had a good channel cat spawn as I have seen dozen or so feeding on the pellets so all around, It appears I had a very good year this time around and wondered if the weather or water conditions played a simillar part in all-y'all 's ponds this year. Can anyone elaborate or even watch this as close as I do? Does anyone really care? LOL.... I am near Dayton and had great high water in the pond through July 4th then it appeared to steadily drop since then as we are in a drought down here and now pond is about 30" down so I am wishing for some serious rain down here. 
The present size of my fish from the initial stocking are as follows: 
HSB - 14-17"
YP -9-12" ( best was 13.5" last winter)
BC - 8.5 -11.5" ( best was 12.75" last winter) 
Best HBG was taken yesterday close to 10"
most BG that are the big ones are around 8.5"
CC are from 2.75 -4.5 lbs
Basically I have plenty of spawning sized fish in the pond but need several more good spawns to get my numbers up as when I fish, I get 95% original stock fish and a few smaller others mixed in. This is why i need some more good spawns as now everything is big enough to eat the YOY which is why I really needed some good early spawns from the panfish but never got them. 

Lucas,( ATAC) what has been your observations from what you have seen since you are in my part of the state?, ( sort of) 

[email protected], what about you? 

Salmonid


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## hang_loose (Apr 2, 2008)

Salmonid, I think your pond and my pond are about the same age (even stocking in the spring). I don't have HSB but everything else is close to what I have. I put 8 walleyes in also on the initial stocking (4-6 inches) and they are averaging about 14" now. I just 10 more in last week that averaged about 6'.

Also I put close to 20 lbs of tilapia in about the middle of July. They tore up the algae except for the coontail and some american pondweed. I also slowed my evening feedings down to 2-3 times a week until they developed the taste for algae.

While my water is low now, I'm moving more structure around my shallow trees for more places the fry can hide.

Just curious, How many CC's do you have? I think I've only got about 9 left.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

I am guessing I am down to about 35-38 CC, we harbvested about a dozen between last year and this year. Ill keep taking them out as fast as I cath them now that they are getting up there in size and even more importantly since they have no doubt spawned under one of my stumps.

I agree, I want to add more sand to my beach area, some rock around the edges and adda f ew more trees while the water is low, i guess I need to do all that this week, LOL....I better get busy....

Salmonid


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## [email protected] (Feb 29, 2008)

Salmonid, I have noticed large schools of bluegill spawn late this season. Just from observation it looks like the later hatch did better than the early hatch for bluegill. I am glad to hear you're finally seeing YP production. With your pond I think it has more to do with the maturity of your fish. Generally, your fish will spawn the best from 3-7 years of age (depending on species) and the larger the female the more eggs that are produced. So, after four years your fish are to the age and size where they are producing the maximum number of eggs. Your concern about everything being big enough to eat YOY can be eased because those same fish are producing more eggs than ever before. Monitor your catfish and hybrid stripers as both can eat quite a bit. As your original fish go past their prime spawning age they should be harvested to free up spawning habitat/resources for the ones that are prime.


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

My bluegill spawned well, 3 classes of fry observed. No evidence of a perch spawn like last year. My bass seem to have had a great year both in growth and spawn probably due to removing all the pondweed this summer making the bluegill easy targets. My 3-5" bluegill population is unusually low so I've filleted around thirty 8-10" bass this fall.

My pond is as low as your's Mark. I turned off my aerator before the last warm spell and I can see the bottom in 6'+. I think the clear water is due in part to nutrient reduction from raking out all that pondweed and in part to the weather. I saw 5 of the biggest bass in my life chasing a 7" bluegill I was reeling in from the middle of the pond. I've seen smallmouth chase bait in packs but I thought bass of this size were more solitary? I tried for an hour to catch one of the big bass without any luck and was trying to catch a small bluegill to use as bait with a Gulp grub when this guy hit. I won't speculate on the size or weight but that's my size 12 boot next to it.









Next year my plan is to shore up my forage in the spring, continue removing small bass and begin removing and replacing the HSB.


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## Fish G3 (Jul 16, 2008)

PondFin in one of my ponds i've noticed on several occasions that about 4-5 LM's about 4-5lb at the least frequently travel in packs. Sometimes i'll see 2-3 of em and the other 2-3 in another spot and then i'll see them altogether. Their definitely the largest LM's in the pond.


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