Pond Management Chapter 21

1
Pond ManagementChapter 21
2
Ponds or Small Impoundments

• lt2.5 hectares or 6 acres
• Usually privately owned
• Various uses
• Some especially for fish production
• Others for irrigation, livestock watering

3
North American Ponds
4
Fish Management Goal

• Provide annual crops of harvestable-size fish
  (within constraints of pond fertility)
• Sustained or improved fishing
• Favorable cost/benefit ratio
• High catch rates, above-average sizes

5
Fish Management Goal

• Problem - private ownership
• Owner responsible for implementing management
  practices

6
Fish Management Goal

• Lack of understanding or unwillingness to do what
  is necessary
• Leads to unbalanced fish populations and poor
  fishing

7
Dependence on Stocking

• Artificial habitats almost entirely dependent on
  stocking
• Warmwater
• Southern - bass/bluegill
• Northern - bass/other
• Coldwater - trout

8
Stocking/Management Options

• Provide good fishery quickly
• Meet needs of pond owner
• Relate to physical, monetary limits

9
All-Purpose Option

• Good bass, bluegill fishing (maybe also catfish)
• Often use slot limit for bass

10
Harvest Quota Option

• Remove set number or biomass of bass
• Stop harvest once quota is reached

11
Panfish Option

• Focus only on panfish - usually bluegill
• Single-species fish community

12
Big Bass Option

• Maximum size limit for bass (larger fish must be
  returned)
• Lots of little bluegill (children fishery)

13
Catfish-Only Option

• Most often used only in muddy or small ponds
• Single-species fish community

14
Bass-Only Option

• Focus only on bass (usually largemouth)
• Single-species fish community

15
Trout Option

• Rainbow trout
• Coldwater pond - usually spring-fed

16
Stocking Rates for Fingerlings

• Species Number per hectare
• Largemouth bass 250
• Bluegill 2,500
• Channel catfish 500 (single), 250 (multi)
• Trout 600 (west), 1,500 (east)

17
Growth Management

• Predators
• Harvest
• Spawning
• Supplemental feed
• Fertilization
• Liming

18
Balance?

• Can balance be expected?
• Artificial system - low stability

19
Some Targets

• Relative weight - Wr
• Wr of all species should be close to 100

20
Some Targets

• Proportional stock density
• Quality/stock X 100
• Largemouth bass - 40-60
• Bluegill - 20-40

21
Size to Stock
22
Some Targets

• Biomass index
• FC ratio
• F forage fish
• C carnivore
• 3.0-6.0

23
Managing Old Ponds

• Do nothing
• Corrective stocking - usually predator
• Reclamation

24
Managing New Ponds

• Use
• Size - area, depth
• Drain
• Fish cover
• Underwater structure
• Macrophytes