# Fatheads



## garryc (Jan 21, 2006)

here's a question for you all. Our aeration project will be completed in early April. At that time we will start it up full go. We do not consider that there is any fish in the pond to speak of. After start up we are going to stock it as a new 1/2 acre pond. We are going to use bass, bluegill and redears. Since we have an algea and muck problem, and OSU studies say that it is the primary source of food for fathead minnows, I was considering putting in the recommended amount for a 1.5 acre pond. I can see no harm from it.


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

No harm in it. It'll cost around $100. Don't expect anything as far as algae or muck reduction. If there are any fish left in the pond that can fit them in their mouths, don't expect them to last long.

Cedar shakes can be stapled to a floating rope and streched across shallow areas for spawing substrate. You can check them occasionally and see jellylike clusters of eggs underneath. Fatheads reproduce like crazy without predators. I would stock the fatheads with 2-3" standard bluegills in the Spring then add 3-4" bass late summer/early fall when water temps start to cool off.


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## HeadwatersEd (Mar 14, 2006)

A trick i have used in the past is to get some sections of 6" PVC pipe either with holes or drilled, cap off both ends, weigh it down and sink it. If your water is very clear, it helps to paint it to make it less visible. Provides excellent cover for the minnows and for fingerlings. Otherwise the minnows get picked off quickly.


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## garryc (Jan 21, 2006)

$100 isn't bad, heck $100 a year is ok too. The food base for them is abundant and the bass, which will be stocked as fingerlings, should have a massive food base. I figure most of the pressure would be off the bluegills. As of now there is some brush hanging into the water, some exposed roots too. I intend to ad fish attractors using 3" pvc pipe with 1/2" through it so it makes a sort of plastic tree. I'm told I need to take some 50 grit sand paper and rough up the 1/2" PVC.


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

I think roughing the PVC will help give the algae something to grow on. I didn't do it on the first two porcupine knock offs I made nothing really grew on them and they didn't really attract many fish. I've also read many times that structure clusters should be pretty big, like the size of car, so it may be that I simply do not have enough since they're each only about 5' dia. each.

I also built 5 teepees out of oak pallets. I now think it would be better to simply make stacks of them laying flat as the teepees ended up lying flat for various reasons after only a couple of years. The pallets are easy to snag on but last a surprisingly long time.

Dragging the structure out on the ice is by far the easiest way to get it placed.


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## ufaquaoiler (Jan 14, 2010)

as for attractors and minnow habitat, a friend and i tossed in about 6 pickup truck loads of junked cinder blocks and large rocks all in one spot and we always catch bass and large sunfish off that rock pile during the summer. i would have to imagine the fry get in between the cracks as well. if you have access to brush, its not very difficult to lash together and tie it to a cinder block. i find that sinking several of them in a row a few feet past the end of the dropoff is the most effective. you are right on dragging attractors onto the ice being the easiest! if you want to ice fish over your attractors then a 10lb splitting axe makes very quick work of cutting a big enough circle to drop your attractor through in 5 inch ice! just make sure you have extra clothes because you WILL get wet doing that. putting my underwater camera in the ice ive found several bluegill and bass fry still using the sunken brush, so i would have to guess your fathead minnows would do the same. they were put in around april or so and have plenty of algae growth on them even right now. im also experimenting with different designs this year and made one that has a 6 foot vertical post with several more posts screwed in going horizontal in all different directions. i also put more posts on the ends of the horizontal ones that go up and down. all posts were made of 2" or so diameter sticks and with bigger spaces inside the thing im hoping the bass will use it since they cant fit through the brush. i also made one with a long stick going horizontal but held up by 4 sets of sticks lashed into an X and bundles of small brush lashed to the edges. small brush for sunfish and larger openings in the X frame for bass should work, but only time will tell.


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