# my pond



## davie1989 (Mar 31, 2010)

i have a little pond prolly 40 wide by 40 -50 lenght bout 15 feet deep it has a tonnnn of blue gil ...well me and my dad put 4-5 nice bass biggest being bout 10 inch or so then we put 16 bullhead cats least we believe they were bullhead all small under 10 inch then we put 12 smallmouth bass in there ( least thought they were ) now that was last yearr ive seen a few catfish since then but havent seen the largemouth or small ... think they even survive ? im new to all this that why i ask


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

the pond sounds pretty dangerous with 1:1 sloped banks. 3:1 is barely safe, 1:1 is crazy.

A 40 by 50 pond isn't very big for a lot of fish. If it's not aerated, only a few feet of the water column will support fish. Adding more fish to a "tonnn" of bluegill probably isn't a good idea for such a small pond. How the fish are handled in transport is key to survival, my guess is it probably wasn't good conditions. Obviously, bullheads would handle poor transport conditions better than the bass.

Then again, they may just be so full of bluegill they don't have any reason to chase your bait.


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## davie1989 (Mar 31, 2010)

its pretty flat on the one side out like 10 feet then it begins to drop into deeper water ( over my head and im 5,8 ) ya its small u can walk around it in like 10 mins or less .... i guess they were poor conditions we caught them from a diff pond and jus put them in mine ...this is my 1st year fishing really soo im new to all this ...ive caught a catfish or two so i no there in there and i jus caught a bluegil bout 10 mins ago but thats all i got was a bluegill i wasnt down there that long tho ...i can take a pic of it but i dk how to put it on this sitee =\


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## davie1989 (Mar 31, 2010)

i got pics of my pond on my site now soo feel free to look at it ...it might be bigger then i said but its still pretty smalll


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

The pics help a bunch. It looks like it's about 1/8th of an acre in a very pretty setting. You should probably take measurements for sure as it is the basis for calculating everything from how many fish it can hold to how much weed control product to apply. ATAC (site sponsor) has a handy page for figuring how many acre's the pond is http://www.atac.cc/pages/quality_fish_stocking.asp#calculate

You should also get some accurate depth measurements. 

Small ponds generally aren't very good at growing big bass, at least not many of them. The rule of thumb is a pond will support 100lbs of predator fish per acre without supplemental feeding. That's only 12.5 lbs for a 1/8th acre pond, or four 3lb bass. To grow big bass I try to stay at more like 50lb bass per acre. Bullheads will reduce the amount of bass carrying capacity, probably not as much as bass but they are fairly good predators.

If I had this pond, I would drain as much as possible and have a piscicide applied to kill off all fish and start over. In my opinion, a pond this size would be well suited for a hybrid bluegill pond with a few same sex bass to keep any offspring produced in check. If feeding pellets is an option, a put and take hybrid bluegill/channel cat combination or hybrid striped bass/hybrid bluegill pond could make for some fun fishing and some tasty fillets. If swimming in this pond (noticed the sandy beach) is a priority, I would consider just doing the hybrid striped bass and feeding pellets.


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## davie1989 (Mar 31, 2010)

well im pretty sure there are hybird bluegill ... we rent this place so i cant drain it or anything .. the landlords son ( like 30's-40's ) is the one the dugg it out he told us that its bout 15 feet deep in the middle .. no one really swims in it as far as i kno the beach side is shallow out 10 feet then its over my head .. steve ( landlords son) takes his 3 labs down there to swim every week or soo and he put sumthing in the pond thats why its blue guessing for weeds and stuff like that im not sure ..ill ask him next time i see him ...there are sum really nice bluegil in ther like good palm size but more smaller one ...the pond is only 4 mabe 4 1/2 years old and its over run with bluegills why we put sum other fish in there lol im get out there and fish it soon .ill take my camara with me and get sum pics should be more active now ...im not even sure witch cat we put in there they were black colored ..
thank you for all the help =)


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Hopefully you got permission to add fish to this pond. I'd be pretty POed if someone added bullhead to my pond, and that's an understatement. Channel cat's have forked tails, bullheads have rounded tails. Channel cats likely will not reproduce in a pond unless there is cavelike structure. Bullheads readily reproduce in ponds. The fry will form dense balls in the water. Bullheads quickly overpopulate and can cause a lot of turbidity while foraging. They have large mouths for their size and are agressive feeders yet generally don't grow to very large sizes. These attributes make them very undesireable for ponds.

Hybrid bluegill don't reproduce much as they are 90-98% male. Hybrid bluegill offspring are inferior to both standard bluegill and their parents and generally don't survive long. Hybrid bluegill with also backbreed with standard bluegill.

The following fish are about 2.5 years old out of my pond. They were stocked about the same time and size.
Standard bluegill









Hybrid Bluegill









This is a Hybrid bluegill X standard bluegill at about 3-4 years (guess). My pond produced a couple of these early but I haven't seen any in a couple of years.


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## davie1989 (Mar 31, 2010)

ohh they know we added fishin they dont care ...ya thats wat mine look like not sure bout that size i havent caught anything that big yet but i havent been out there much this year ....ya im not sure witch they are ill get pics


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## davie1989 (Mar 31, 2010)

i caught this in my pond a lil bit agonot sure wat it is small mouth mabe?







and here a small blue gill i caught to


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## fxs (Aug 31, 2007)

not smallmouth bass!


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## davie1989 (Mar 31, 2010)

lol i know its a golden shinner .... im new to fishing soo im sorry


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## Smead (Feb 26, 2010)

That's a nice sized Bluegill that took your spinner...congratulations!!

Here's a great resource...Ohio Dept of Natural Resources fish species guide:

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/species_a_to_z/AZFish/tabid/17913/Default.aspx

Here's everything;

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/species_a_to_z/SpeciesGuideIndex/tabid/6491/Default.aspx

That golden shiner is on the high end for it's species!!


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## [email protected] (Feb 29, 2008)

I know a taxidermist for that shiner if you like


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## davie1989 (Mar 31, 2010)

http://www.ohiogamefishing.com/community/picture.php?albumid=734&pictureid=4157
nice 8 1/2 ..9 inch blue gill


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## davie1989 (Mar 31, 2010)

catfish caught wat kind??







8 1/2 blue gill


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## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

The cat is a bullhead, either yellow or black. Look at the center barbels beneath its mouth. If their dark its likley a black, if their light in coloration its probably a yellow. 

Regardless, you don't want that fish in your pond. Only takes two to tango, and they can become quite the nucaince. Remove every single one you catch.


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## davie1989 (Mar 31, 2010)

here that cat from yesturday had to get it from my buddy lol







and heres the one caught today


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## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

Yellow bullheads, great for flathead bait, bad for your pond.


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

yep, yellow bullhead and a Hybrid bluegill.


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## davie1989 (Mar 31, 2010)

ya i guess thats wats was in there to begin with hybrid blue we put the cat in and golden shinner ( not knownin thats wat it was lol ) and 4 or 5 lm bass but havent caught one bass yeet!!!!! idk why have used a rapala ..frog lures .. i used a lil gill i caught..mepps of course worms even the neon green ones lmfao ..ive tryed alot and nothing starting to wounder if they are in there =\ im hopen they jus fat and not biten idk


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## davie1989 (Mar 31, 2010)

caught these outa my pond today 1st bass outa there was awesome caught 2 allright size cats too


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## c. j. stone (Sep 24, 2006)

Not too familiar with hybrid gills-is it normal for them to have such big mouths??


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## [email protected] (Feb 29, 2008)

That is a characteristic of the green sunfish (_Lepomis cyanellus_) which is what the bluegill (_Lepomis macrochirus_) is crossed with in commercially raised hybrid bluegill. This hybrid has been the most successful of any other crosses of Lepomis species, bluegillXredear or redearXgreen or warmouthXpumpkinseed, etc...


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## davie1989 (Mar 31, 2010)

yeaa idk prolly wat he said up there ..all i kno is ive pull up sum 9 incher and they got a pretty big mouth on emm lol


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## davie1989 (Mar 31, 2010)

went out this morning around 9 30 or so while it was still NICE out hahaha ..my pond was really active i didnt get many pics,im thinking bout goin back out in awhile when it cools off more .back to my fishing today ha my dad and i went out back jus to see how the bass were coming along and within a hour we had over 5 bass bite while out there all of them around the same size ( not far off from the bass pic up on here allready if not a little bigger) but it was a good morning out there both of us had a few bass on line tho thye spit the hook lol caught 1 cat each not that big tho..but still a good day out back will post pics as soon as i can =)


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## davie1989 (Mar 31, 2010)

bass i caught earlyer ,my dad is holding it up







bass my dad caught







here how the pond looks today


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## davie1989 (Mar 31, 2010)

went out yesterday ( 6 am ) to hit the pond for a bit and they werreeee hungry ..i was only using luress so i wasnt catching a ton of small bluegill ..still caught two of them tho ...nice sizee with good weight on them.caught a nice bass on a top water lure =) and had another but my line got all tangled somehow and it snapped ..hee was BIG ima head back out here when it gets just light enuf to see ima take my camera for sure incase i catch that big one or anything worth a pic ..and yess its CATCH AND RELEASE i dont need to hear any of that crap lol i dont want to kill my bass i want them nice and fatt! and NO i dont feed them pellets or any thing its hard enuf to survive in this world with out thinkin bout buyin FISH food lol they can eat other fish in my pond hahaha well i hope ill have pics to postt =)


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## fishin'forlife (Aug 2, 2011)

Little pond bass fishin is the best!


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## davie1989 (Mar 31, 2010)

caught two nice size bass today and a little baby bass! so they are spawning since i put them in there ..they have thin out my bluegill =) which we wanted to happen .the cats are still alive too caught one few days ago around 7 to 8 inch ..i gota upload the pics from my camera hopefully they come out good cuz one pick i took has 3 deer in it they were watching me fish before i even noticed themm!


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## davie1989 (Mar 31, 2010)




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## davie1989 (Mar 31, 2010)

the 1st bass pic is from a few days agoo the rest was from yesterday.it was pretty foggy out so i thought id get a few pics of that too ..the last pic there is a deer standing there staring at me ..my camera sucks soo cant zoom in =( ... and no i didnt get measurements or a weight enjoy the pics


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