Removing the "dinks" from lakes.

[restornator]

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.

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?