Removing the "dinks" from lakes.

I have several private owned strip mine lakes that i fish and i have been working on improving the fish habitats in these lakes. Im lucky that the land owner has given me the go ahead to do as i please in improving these lakes. Not to mention he has provided a small track hoe and several hundred gallons of deisel to help me out.

Some of the pits i have dropped the water levels five to six feet to allow shoreline vegetation to get better established and ive also planted plots of willows onto these shorelines. When all this vegetation gets a good three or four year foot hold i plan on raising the water levels back up to the previous height to provide cover for newly hatched frye.

The past couple years we had some high winds that have left quite a few small barns and storage sheds flipped over and blown off their foundations. On the lakes where the water levels cant be dropped as easily i have used recycled wood and built several dozen rabbit hutch style "frye shelters" that are 4.0 feet wide x 4.0 feet tall x 10.0 feet long that i have filled with hard wood tree top brush and floated with pvc pipe and have anchored them in shallow grassy areas. Smaller size fish can get through the wire where the larger fish cant get through to eat them.

My primary question is i wonder that due to the fact these lakes are privately owned would it be lawfull for me to toss all the largemouth smaller than 16 inches up onto the banks or to give them to someone wanting smaller fish to stock their farm ponds. The way i see it is the removing of fish under 16.0 inch should allow the larger fish to more sucessfully spawn and establish more of a trophy size fish population in these strip pit lakes.

Has anyone had any experience in doing this? And if so what long term results did you have?

I got several floating goose islands built and i am looking to buy more 55 gallon plastic barrels in the Hopkins and Muhlenburgh County Areas.

i'm a fisheries biologist (at least on paper) and the first thing i would say is do you have a goal and what is it?

dont throw fish on the bank unless its a carp!! If you want alot of the 16 inchers and smaller out let some of your close friends fish it and keep the bass until you reach your goal. It may be a sin to most to keep a Largemouth but they are really good to eat if they are 12-15 inches. Any larger than that and they should be allowed to swim around and make babies!!

Shawn

You could try to sell them. Fund your upgrades and future projects. I know someone would be happy to take them.

Call KDFWR and they should be able to assist you.

[QUOTE=restornator;483478]i'm a fisheries biologist (at least on paper) and the first thing i would say is do you have a goal and what is it?[/QUOTE]

Ive acquired access to some private strip mine lakes that are near a local river and few creeks so these strip mine lakes have a regular influx of new fish when the river rises and flows over into the pits. So the fish in these lakes come out of diverse gene pools and tend to be very thick and good sized fish there are a lot of fish eight pounds and larger.

One of my goals is to completely drain a three acre strip pit lake emptying it of all species of fish and then restocking it with largemouth that carry larger trophy size genetics. Keep everything documented and then see if there might be grant money available to fund this type of operation. And if there is no money available to do this then thats no big deal because the satisfaction of doing something like this is well worth it.

When i was a kid i always thought it would be cool to be one of the guys that worked for the fish hatcheries. But i could make more money working within my family owned construction business rather than go to college. And now since i made my money and im finished working i want to spend my time doing fishing and hunting related activites. So now im going to do me a largemouth hatchery thing just to see what happens.

And next i will try monster size crappie in a different pit.

[QUOTE=TroyRalph502;483573]You could try to sell them. Fund your upgrades and future projects. I know someone would be happy to take them.[/QUOTE]
Now that would [I]definitely[/I] be illegal.

[QUOTE=sglass;483554]dont throw fish on the bank unless its a carp!! If you want alot of the 16 inchers and smaller out let some of your close friends fish it and keep the bass until you reach your goal. It may be a sin to most to keep a Largemouth but they are really good to eat if they are 12-15 inches. Any larger than that and they should be allowed to swim around and make babies!!

Shawn[/QUOTE]

I agree, don't just waste them. Maybe invite yours, or a local church to have a men's fishing day, or a youth group event. Have them come fish and then have a fish fry.

[QUOTE=IronWorker;483636]Ive acquired access to some private strip mine lakes that are near a local river and few creeks so these strip mine lakes have a regular influx of new fish when the river rises and flows over into the pits. So the fish in these lakes come out of diverse gene pools and tend to be very thick and good sized fish there are a lot of fish eight pounds and larger.

One of my goals is to completely drain a three acre strip pit lake emptying it of all species of fish and then restocking it with largemouth that carry larger trophy size genetics. Keep everything documented and then see if there might be grant money available to fund this type of operation. And if there is no money available to do this then thats no big deal because the satisfaction of doing something like this is well worth it.

When i was a kid i always thought it would be cool to be one of the guys that worked for the fish hatcheries. But i could make more money working within my family owned construction business rather than go to college. And now since i made my money and im finished working i want to spend my time doing fishing and hunting related activites. So now im going to do me a largemouth hatchery thing just to see what happens.

And next i will try monster size crappie in a different pit.[/QUOTE]

okay, first you will not get any grant money because you aren't doing research, and have no background that would convince anyone that you are. Second, the recirculation of water from the river will make it pointless to lime or fertilize your lakes. The runoff should be fertile enough to take care that. Third, weeds do not grow large bass, they provide shelter for forage fish. I've seen a lot of choked out ponds and the bass are long and skinny. If you want trophy bass, you need to harvest 25lbs bass/ acre. That is a lot! No, do not remove 16in fish, those are 3 pounders (that's big). Remove everything you catch less than 14 inches. Feed them to the birds, and log how many fish you remove and the weight. Do not waste your time removing bluegill. For 8-9lb bass, this is all you can really do. If you want anything bigger, you will need to supplement the bass's diet with another forage fish, like gizzard shad. Lastly, be prepared to removed the flathead catfish; they will wipe out the bluegill. Sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it?

Oh yeah, screw PETA and all these posters that say don't waste the bass.

[QUOTE=restornator;485344]okay, first you will not get any grant money because you aren't doing research, and have no background that would convince anyone that you are. Second, the recirculation of water from the river will make it pointless to lime or fertilize your lakes. The runoff should be fertile enough to take care that. Third, weeds do not grow large bass, they provide shelter for forage fish. I've seen a lot of choked out ponds and the bass are long and skinny. If you want trophy bass, you need to harvest 25lbs bass/ acre. That is a lot! No, do not remove 16in fish, those are 3 pounders (that's big). Remove everything you catch less than 14 inches. Feed them to the birds, and log how many fish you remove and the weight. Do not waste your time removing bluegill. For 8-9lb bass, this is all you can really do. If you want anything bigger, you will need to supplement the bass's diet with another forage fish, like gizzard shad. Lastly, be prepared to removed the flathead catfish; they will wipe out the bluegill. Sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it?[/QUOTE]

From what im observing these strip mine lakes tend to be very fertile and Im assuming this is because of the limestone that was overlaying the coal seems was busted up enough to leach out into the water. So im looking at relatively new lakes with enough upturned lime stone that creates an environment relative to that of older more often fertile lakes.

I am working on one lake of aproximately eight to nine acres in size that is now almost completely siphoned dry with precautions being made to prevent water from running into it from other nearby lakes and ponds. It will be completely empty with all present fish eliminated. And yes it was quite a headache to sucessfully siphon off a eight acre strip pit with a minimum amount of resources but i managed to get it done.

Largemouth, panfish (no crappie) and catfish will be in the lake.

I am looking into building a shocking device such as the fisheries biologist use for surveys and removing the largest of bass 8 lb.+ from the other pits and introducing them into the eight acre pit once it had refilled. Im assuming i will need a temporary holding tank with aeration so i can keep an eye on the fish and use chemicals or antibiotics to help them recuperate from the stress and cool them down before acclimating them into the new acre lake.

Basically im wanting a develop a eight acre lake with nothing but largemouth possessing trophy size genetics. And these surrounding pits do have numerous 8 lb. + largemouth in them. And you are right im not doing research and i dont have a college degree so i probably wont get any grant money but hopefully i will have a eight acre lake full of largemouth with superior genetics. And that will get the attention of a fisheries biologist somewhere whether it be in Kentucky or a neighboring state.

every so often the KDFW sells one of their shock boats. you will have to outbid me for it though....

if you want to make your own, it's a pulsing DC current. DC doesn't pulse, so that's where you will need help from an elecrtical engineer. The power source is usually an AC generator.