# saugeye for 3/4 acre pond



## bopperattacker

i'm looking for some fingerlings to add to an existing pond. Pond is over 12 years old, and is full of gills, bass, some perch, black crappie, frogs, and a couple carp. 

Anyone know any place in north central ohio that sales Saugeye? Jones fish doesn't carry them.


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## Salmonid

I doubt youll find any at a private hatchery but walleye fingerlings can be found if you look, I would suggest getting at least yearlings since there is bass in the pond already or better yet, catching them yourself and transporting, its what everyone I know who has smallies in there lakes has done. Finding them is just too hard/expensive. Years ago a friend had several in his little pond and we caught them for a while then they just disapeared??? Dont know why, he was supplementing tons of fatheads in the pond. So i dont know how well they will do.

Salmonid


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## bopperattacker

Salmonid: Jones fish carries walleyes, and they are the ones who stocked our carp and perch five years ago. Previous owner tossed in two walleyes from candlewood lake about 8 years ago. One lived, one died. Heard walleyes don't do good in small ponds.
Saugeye seem to be able to live in the warmer temps in the pond and might survive better as walleye is kinda expensive and don't thrive in ponds.

do you think if I contact the ODNR they would have any suggestions?


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## Salmonid

If you think walleyes are expensive, I imagine if you could find saugeyes, they would be more then the Walleyes. DNR will not be able to help you since they raise there own. Ill see if I can locate any from some different web sites. Will let you know if I find any.
Salmonid


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## [email protected]

bobberattacker, why do you want saugeye instead of walleye?


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## bopperattacker

[email protected] said:


> bobberattacker, why do you want saugeye instead of walleye?


the pond is pretty shallow in most areas. The majority of the pond is less than 3-5 feet deep, with that tapering down to a section of the pond that gets to be about 10-12 feet deep. I'm talking to Jones fish currently to see if walleyes would survive and at what rate. Perch do great in the pond, so I don't see why walleye wouldn't. i know they don't breed in ponds, I just figured saugeye would have a higher survival rate vs. walleye


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## Fishman

Don't stock fingerlings in a 12 year old pond. The likley hood that you see any of those fish mature to adulthood is slim to nill. I can't really comment on saugeye growth rates but walleye seem to grow fairly slow in farm ponds even when presented with good forage populations.


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## [email protected]

First off, you have a lot of predators in for a 3/4 acre pond. Bass, black crappie, perch, bullfrogs and walleye/saugeye will all compete against each other for food. I would think aeration would be a must to keep oxygen levels good in the cooler depths. Walleye need water under 86 degrees to survive, saugeye can handle would need to be stocked at 10-12" to survive bass predation. Growth will be extremely slow since they are not adapted to prey on sunfish unless you can successfully supply them with a constant source of soft rayed/narrow prey like fatheads or shiners. Walleye will not utilize commercial feed in a pond with forage present, they would rather starve than eat pellets.


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## bkr43050

I would suggest hitting the nearest saugeye water and catching your own. There is always plenty of debate about transplanting fish from one body of water to another but in your own pond/lake it is perfectly legal. Some people may still be opposed to this approach but to me it would be my choice.


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## Net

I imagine any state fisheries dept or private fish propagator for that matter would be opening themselves up to at least some liability for selling live saugeye on the open market. i.e. Joe pond owner drains his pond and 1000 saugeye end up in a pure strain walleye fishery.

I agree with Brian. Nothing wrong with stocking a private pond on your own.


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## Fishman

bopperattacker said:


> I just figured saugeye would have a higher survival rate vs. walleye



You're probably right, correct me if I'm wrong but arn't saugeye used for crappie managment in some lakes. The walleye defeinitally prefer soft rayed fish, no arguing that, but saugeyes might not fare to bad with gills to feed on. If you find any, let us know how they do down the road, curious to see.


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## big_fish

wel not to rain on your parade but cathing fish and transporting to another body of water is not permitted by the ondr its right in your booklet you get with your liciense so if you do you might stay tight lipped on it the main reason for not transporting is the fear of disease you would infect your water the oter is introducing invasive species to you water(round gobbies in erie ect) but good luck on finding some


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## bkr43050

big_fish said:


> wel not to rain on your parade but cathing fish and transporting to another body of water is not permitted by the ondr its right in your booklet you get with your liciense so if you do you might stay tight lipped on it the main reason for not transporting is the fear of disease you would infect your water the oter is introducing invasive species to you water(round gobbies in erie ect) but good luck on finding some


As I mentioned earlier there are some misconceptions on transporting fish from one body of water to another. The laws regarding that apply to any transporting in waters that are not self contained (ie. your private pond). You are correct that it is illegal to transplant them to a public lake or even to your local stream as the stream is not private (only the ground beneath it).


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## Net

No worries big_fish. My parade is still dry.


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## [email protected]

There are no producers of saugeye for private ponds in Ohio or in other states that will ship here so your only options are to catch them yourself or try walleye.


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## bopperattacker

[email protected] said:


> I would think aeration would be a must to keep oxygen levels good in the cooler depths. Walleye need water under 86 degrees to survive.


We have a surface aerator at 4 feet in the shallow part, and a bottom aerator in the deepest section. Aeration was the only way to clear the water, and we haven't had a floater in over 4 years. 



bkr43050 said:


> I would suggest hitting the nearest saugeye water and catching your own. There is always plenty of debate about transplanting fish from one body of water to another but in your own pond/lake it is perfectly legal..


The original owner took fish he caught from candlewood lake in morrow county and transported them. He told us he stocked approx 75 4-6 inch misc panfish, 20 8-12 inch LMB, 3 smallmouth,one catfish, two walleyes, 25 perch, and 10 crappie. both black and white over a 4 year period.Then in 2002 Jones fish did a test, and we stocked shiners, 50 lmb to control the panfish, four carp and installed the aerators. After that Jones fish told us to start harvesting a certain amount of panfish/bass/perch per season.



Fishman said:


> Don't stock fingerlings in a 12 year old pond. The likley hood that you see any of those fish mature to adulthood is slim to nill. walleye seem to grow fairly slow in farm ponds even when presented with good forage populations.


Exactly what Jones fish advised. This spring JF is coming out and we are going to test the waters with 25 5-7 inch walleye, and 20 8-10 inch. They said we would have to stock some shiners and F-Heads with the walleye, and that growth rate would be around an inch to two inches a year if we continue to stock forage yearly at 200$ per season. Also the summer heat might produce some floaters, and if that's the case, they said not to waste our money and stop stocking them. I guess survival rate is only 25-50&#37; in small warmer shallow ponds. 
Jones fish also said that the walleye will eat a lot of small panfish, which we have a ton of. If all goes well, in 2012 we'll stock more.


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## Fishman

Makes since to me. I wouldn't be surprised if the survival rate is a little better than that. I fish a 2 acre lake that has walleyes in it, never saw a floater during the warm months. Most of the fish adverage 20-24" with an adverage weight of around 3-4lbs. They are somewhat skinny.The pond has 2 bottom based aeration templates in it as well. We grow quite a lot of walleyes out at Jones, and I've never noticed any large die off of walleyes. They really seem pretty hearty all in all, but I definitally would agree with you that saugeyes would probably be ideal for pond situations if you were willing to take the extra effort to sustain a healthy population. I've personally stocked quite a few of walleyes in smaller ponds and have heard from pond owner that they are doing well.

Let us know how ya do, always interested in hearing feedback on speices such as this.


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## [email protected]

Bopper, have you considered seining the pond to get a good survey on what you have now? What kind of body condition are your existing bass, crappie and perch in? 

I don't think $200 worth of forage per year is going to help your walleye much with all the other predators you have but I wish you luck and look forward to hearing about your results. 

I wouldn't even attempt to stock 5-7" walleye in a pond with a 12 year old bass population. It would be wise to get sample lengths and weights at stocking time so you can track their growth.


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## bopperattacker

[email protected] said:


> Bopper, have you considered seining the pond to get a good survey on what you have now? What kind of body condition are your existing bass, crappie and perch in?
> .


past 3 years we've only caught lm bass and panfish. We harvested out the perch/crappies back in 2004. Haven't caught one since, only 20 or so got hand stocked, and we easily cleaned 75 the first year of ownership. Not saying they're not there, just haven't caught any perch or crappie in a few years, and I fish the pond 20-30 times a year. 

Jones fish should be coming out pre-stock to check our conditions and advise us from there. We use our pond for fishing and eating. We would like to stock perch and walleye, but don't want to risk the chance of destroying our productive pond. thanks for all the great info


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## [email protected]

It sounds like you have a pretty good plan. Crappie reproduction is intermittent and unpredictable in ponds so they may not have reproduced every year. If you had a problem with crappie, you'd notice but keep harvesting all crappies caught just in case. Perch don't reproduce well without appropriate structure and even with spawning structure survival of offspring will be very low with a moderate to high population of bass and limited cover. If the bass aren't looking fat and healthy remove some and use a heavy hand. The bass are easy to catch and their condition will give you a good idea of how much forage is available for the walleye.

Golden shiners would be a good forage fish to stock if you have grassy structure for them to spawn on. If not put your money towards feeding pellets to the existing bluegill population. You'll grow panfish for the table now while growing forage for your walleye at the same time.


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## twistertail

Not sure if I'm going to get arrested for this or not but when I was a kid a friend of mine and I caught about 20 saugeye one weekend and we put them all in his pond. They were all in the 10" range and seemed to do really well. Over the years we continued to catch them from the pond and the last time I caught one from there it was a little over 20". This was about 15 years ago and I have not idea what the life of a saugeye can be so I dont know if any of them are still in there but if they are I'm sure they are HAWGS!


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## bkr43050

twistertail said:


> Not sure if I'm going to get arrested for this or not but when I was a kid a friend of mine and I caught about 20 saugeye one weekend and we put them all in his pond. They were all in the 10" range and seemed to do really well. Over the years we continued to catch them from the pond and the last time I caught one from there it was a little over 20". This was about 15 years ago and I have not idea what the life of a saugeye can be so I dont know if any of them are still in there but if they are I'm sure they are HAWGS!


You won't have to worry about going in to hiding to avoid an arrest. As was mentioned earlier it is TOTALLY legal to transplant fish to your private pond. Many folks say that it is not but I have never heard or read that it was illegal from any reliable source. Perhaps someone on here has direct contact with someone in the ODNR that can provide a qualified answer for that. I am sure that not everyone will simply accept my statement as the law. I wouldn't expect you to since I am not an authority on the matter. But for those who claim that it is illegal I challenge you to provide us all with evidence that this indeed is an illegal act.


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## [email protected]

I think the grass carp screened outlet stuff was back in the day before triploids were available and you had to get a permit for them...may still apply to great lakes watershed though. Triploid grass carp are sterile so there's no chance of them reproducing and a couple getting loose would do very little damage. It is unlikely that a huge number would accidently get loose in one system because they're just aren't that many ponds overflowing into major waterways, they're usually stocked at low qtys and they're like $12 Ea.

I don't see why it would matter to the DNR whether the fish are eaten or put in a private pond unless the pond overflows into a body of water that is being isolated from saugeyes intentionally.


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## I Fish

I asked the fisheries biologist in Athens (district 4, I think) specifically, "can I catch saugeyes in the Ohio River, then release them in my farm pond?" The answer is YES you can, as long as you follow all of the fishing regulations for that species. Also, you can do this with any fish species, from any of Ohio's public waters, so long as they are not an endangered, threatened, or invasive species, and you follow the rules and regulations set forth to harvest them(length and creel limits, approved methods, etc.), and you are either the owner, or have permission from the owner of the pond. He made no mention of any type of spillway. He also said saugeye were a good tool to use to control over populated bluegills, as according to him, they love them, and will eat them over shad or anything else, if they are readily available. I'd suggest calling your local wildlife office, ask for the fisheries guy, and ask away.


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