Hello Everyone,

I am new and just thought I would say hello and make a board.

Please just add to this topic feel free to bring up anything to do with the Farm pond.

This is my first year with my new pond. Its a tad over 3/4 of a acher. There are bass in there, sunnies at least 3 differnt types, crappies which I remove when I catch, carp caught one 17 pounds, I put catfish, 80 6 inch ones and been feeding them there about 11 -12 inches now. I put 4 pounds of fat head minows and 100 bluegill just to give the food for the bass a boost.

My bass have been spawning the past 2 weeks. I would say there are 8 or 9 up that I see, no big pigs but hopefully a good spawn.

Hope the board gets into some good conversation.

On our farm we have 8 ponds, all but 2 were fishless before I got them. 7 of them are producing good fish for me now. I have yet to even start on the 8th one yet, as many of my buddys who have ponds "let" me manage them because the have seen the results on mine.  I only stock Bass and sunfish (bluegills and pumpkin seeds). I have bought fatheads just once and really can't afford to do that regularly. My program is pretty simple , and this is what I did on the fishless ponds. I took a few 12" -14" bass out of one of the established pond, as well as 25 or 30 adult sunnys, put them in the new pond.....and then left that pond alone for 2 years. When I did begin fishing it, the original stockers had grown quite large , some over 5 lbs, which is EXCELLANT growth for bass up north here. There spawns after 2 years produced a good sized population of 10"-12" bass. The stocked sunfish also had grown huge, and there 1st spawn class was reaching "eating" size already. Once I begain fishing this pond I kept and ate all the mid range sunfish I caught, and released any small ones and the original bigger ones. As for the bass, I remove anout 1/2 of all the less than 12" fish I catch each year. The growth rate for the bigger bass has slowed now that there are more bass to compete with, but the 1st year class is growing quite well, and the overall quality and health of the fish is very good. This has worked for me......maybe not what the pond "experts" would recomend, but I like the results. Also, because I own these ponds it's legal for me to move the fish from one to another as long as it came from one of my ponds, some people don't have that ability. Non of my ponds are huge, the smallest is about 3/4 acre,1 is an even acre, 2 are about 1 1/2 acres,2 more are just about 2 acres, and 2 are 5 acres. The one I have yet to stock is one of the 5 acre ponds, but I may get to it this summer. Whats neat is each pond is different, but I have basicly have (not including the 5 acre yet to stocked) 15 acres of my own little bass world.

This pond was a existing pond I think about 15 to 20 years old. I am begining to think I have to many bass in it. I didnt cull any yet but after taging about a dozen and catching at least another dozen tagless all under 2 pounds I am thinking I need to thin out the bass a little. There are plenty of sunnys but one type that should not be in there, so far I see bluegill, redear and red brested sunnys. I put some cover in. I would say 10 xmas trees, a bunch of cinder blocks and a few laydowns and banged in a lot of posts which the bass like. You said you put fat heads, supposedly they are very hardy and if you stack a few pallets and weight them down they will breed on the undersides of the wood. Joey

I was reading a issue of the Infisherman Catfish Insider on bullheads and it said: "Not always so, but ponds with a good population of sizable bullheads have a thriving  big largemouth population."

RD

I guess it depends on the pond.  I put Channel cats. I just came in from the pond, caught 3 bass and missed one.  Caught all 3 on a rubber worm in pumkinseed color. The one I missed I threw the worm on the bank and there was a clump of smegla this bass came fireing out of it and wacked my worm so fast I blew the strike.   >

my partner reeled in a 6 pound 9 ounce bass today from a farm pond, and there are bigger ones in there. farm ponds can usually be the best.

My partner caught one this morning right at day break that was just shy of 9 pounds from a farm pond.  So far thats the biggest but we've caught severl 4-6lb this year.

I finished redoing my docks and took a lap around today and got skunked..  I hate when that happens.  It was really hot out so I will give them a break.  My goal for this pond considering it less then a acher is a few four pounders I think 5 pounders would be great.  How big was the pond you got the 9 out of.  Here is a pic of the docks and part of the pond if it goes threw.

What do you think? I went fishing in a big lake and brought back 2 decent bass to put in the pond. I think either the ones I put in or my resident fish are chasing one another. What do you think is it possable?

I want a pond. >

Have you consulted any pond managment sites or resources?

A friend of mine had a small lake made at his farm about 2 years ago. The bass are thriving, and since they have recently gotten to catching size, and they are not used to lures, they are very aggressive. I went to the lake over the weekend and caught 17 bass in under 4 hours. It was amazing!

I have not asked a pond managment comp yet...  I know they will say dont put Bass from any other water in there.

My bass are pretty smart.  I can fish been bass fishing for 30 years and I will tell you, you did great if you catch 3.  There in there because I taged a bunch of them.  There not real big but the pond and property was vacant for 2 years, someone said lots of locals were always fishing it.  I am sure that is were the big oines went.  There is so much bait and fry in there its not surprizing the bass dont bite.  They have a smogagborg when ever they want it.

Sound's great!  I have a classmate with a 6 yr old pond and in it they have lm bass, catfish, and georgia giant (bream) and let me tell u, the bream are HUGE!  Those suckers will hit spinnerbaits when I'm bass fishing and I can usually catch them (they have big quite big mouths).

I also agree with LBH, I WANT A POND!!!!!!

Bringing in bass from a lake could be a death warrant on all your bass if the new ones carry LMBV or other diseases. You could be introducing new parasites not already brought in on bird feet and excrement. I'd only put in fish certified to be clean from nurseries approved by the state.

No doubt resident bass would chase newcomers. Bass have a "pecking order", each having its favorite ambush spot. The newbies face having to fit in somewhere, and the residents won't give up their spot easily.

Consider alternating casting lures with fishing finesse worms and small hair jigs under stick floats. That'll fool some of the larger bass that will become wise to swimming baits, especially if you release your catches.

Jim