Pond Musky

[walleyemaniac]

Hey again guys. I have a pond in my backyard. It has some really awesome bass swimming around in it. One I caught about four years ago was nearly 13 lbs.(no proof, just my word) And a handful of 5-8 lbers. There are also some freakishly large crappie, and some gruesomely large bluegill. With the bigs, I am of course dealing with tons of smaller fish. Not so many small crappie which I find strange, cuz they are notorious for overpopulating, but far too many little bass. The bluegill are food for bass, so I can live with them.

I try to cull as many bass as possible every year, only releasing fish larger than 16" back into the pond. The rest are used as fertilizer for my garden or food for my belly! The last couple years I've noticed the larger fish are growing thin, and I can't seem to keep up with the smaller bass population.


Soooooo, Do Musky eat baby bass???? They eat pretty much any **** thing they want right? Anybody know of a hatchery that would sell musky? I just want two or three females, maybe 12" long, I shall feed them and nurture them, pet them, and hug them, and then when they're ready, I shall walk the dog on them!!!!

I would estimate the pond to cover 5/8 of an acre with an average depth of 6', the deepest being 11', and it is spring fed, and healthy.


Any help/advice will go a long way. Thanks.

[sweetwater]

Ponds and small lakes are notoriously difficult to maintain a healthy balance of species, size of fish and numbers. There are formulas that specify how many inches and what species of fish a specific body of water can accommodate. A fisheries biologist from the KDFW would be able to tell you what you need to do. Don't be surprised if they advise you to kill out the whole pond and start over again. Sometimes that is the only solution to finding the balance that you seek.

[kentuckykingfisher]

I would say put a couple of flathead catfish in there. They might help out thinning out the smaller bass but they could also hurt the larger bass by eating bluegill their primary food source. It's a gamble but I'd go to a biologist like sweetwater said before I'd do anything.

[R19]

Culling fish from a pond is one of the best things you can do to maintain a healthy population. You said you were culling fish but still having issues with some fish be slender in size. I think you need to cull some more and when you think have have culled enough Remove Some More...you will be surprised at how many pounds a persons needs to remove to keep the balance in check. This only applies if you have a pond that is capable of producing fish like the number you say you have...cull harder,it will pay off in the long run.

[walleyemaniac]

Ponds and small lakes are notoriously difficult to maintain a healthy balance of species, size of fish and numbers. There are formulas that specify how many inches and what species of fish a specific body of water can accommodate. A fisheries biologist from the KDFW would be able to tell you what you need to do. Don't be surprised if they advise you to kill out the whole pond and start over again. Sometimes that is the only solution to finding the balance that you seek.

I found a fish farm outside of Bowling Green that sells musky babies, sent the dude an email. Hopefully I'll hear back from him and will take his recommendations into consideration as well as yours. Thank you by the way.

I just cant help thinking how friggin sweet it'd be to have a 20-30" musky swimming around in my pond. I wouldn't expect them to grow to the massive size they do in larger environments, but I believe it would add a nice element of excitement to burning a buzzbait out in the back yard.

[SLP]

I am not expert but I would think that with a pond that size and depth in Kentucky's climate that it may be hard for musky to do well, you might have a better chance of chain pickerel adapting since it is spring fed as long as it has plenty of cover and/or some weeds for it to hide in.

[walleyemaniac]

I would say put a couple of flathead catfish in there. They might help out thinning out the smaller bass but they could also hurt the larger bass by eating bluegill their primary food source. It's a gamble but I'd go to a biologist like sweetwater said before I'd do anything.

Catfish. Everybody says put catfish in it. I hate catfish. I don't know why, but I just do. Call it an unhealthy prejudice. Coincidentally, I also hate cats. Maybe there's a connection!

I do appreciate the advice though, and I would consider them more if my bluegill population was getting out of hand. We do cull a fair number of larger bluegill every year with special uses set aside for breeding size females. (They make great bass bait for three to seven year olds)

[walleyemaniac]

Culling fish from a pond is one of the best things you can do to maintain a healthy population. You said you were culling fish but still having issues with some fish be slender in size. I think you need to cull some more and when you think have have culled enough Remove Some More...you will be surprised at how many pounds a persons needs to remove to keep the balance in check. This only applies if you have a pond that is capable of producing fish like the number you say you have...cull harder,it will pay off in the long run.

10-4! I got a couple sons that are just starting to get to where they don't hook everything but fish, so they should be able to help out now.

[walleyemaniac]

I am not expert but I would think that with a pond that size and depth in Kentucky's climate that it may be hard for musky to do well, you might have a better chance of chain pickerel adapting since it is spring fed as long as it has plenty of cover and/or some weeds for it to hide in.

That's what I'm mainly concerned about. I don't want to buy them to just have them turn into turtle food. I hadn't considered a chain pickerel. I will look into them though. Thank you.

[SLP]

I just did a quick search on the topic and found this article that you may find helpful.


http://aquaculture.ca.uky.edu/files/info/muskpike.pdf

[Fishin is life]

Musky struggle to survive in deeper lakes in Kentucky, an 11ft deep pond wont keep them alive. Musky wont just eat smaller bass, theyll attack anything they think they can get in their mouth. If your bass are reproducing really well itll amaze you how many you need to take out. Also your larger bluegill will eat bluegill fry, so the amount of bass food size bluegill could be smaller than you think. You need to have a professional come and analyze your pond. They say crappie are the worst to have in a pond because they compete for food with a bass

[walleyemaniac]

I just did a quick search on the topic and found this article that you may find helpful.


http://aquaculture.ca.uky.edu/files/info/muskpike.pdf

Perfect. Thank You. What I get from that is a solid Maybe! It reads to me like it's a 50/50 proposition, and will depend more on the water temp in the summer months. Being spring fed it tends to stay cooler. And I like the vegetation that I have, so that helps cool the water and keep the oxygen levels high. Musky like the weeds too. But, I could end up with two apex predators fighting it out over the bluegill, and do more harm than good. But would one or two musky make that much of an impact? May just have to roll the dice on this one.