(with permission from the ponds owner of cours)
Would this help to casue teh LM bass to grow noticibly or is it not even worth it?
Do NOT stock Golden Shiners in a pond! They are very aggresive fish when it comes to forage and will compete with the BGs & Crappie. I have spent the last 5 years removing the Goldens that survived after some one used them for bait in one of my ponds. Fathead Minnows can be safely stocked, and are available (at least around here). They will not grow to the size of Goldens and they will not be competition for the game fish.
Clint
I feel closer to HIM when I’m fishing.
Anthony,
It is almost always a bad idea to move/stock fish on your own. Well meaning people do this all the time and often ruin a good fishery. A healthy pond with a good population of bluegill and bass will support itself. As BlueGill Bud stated Golden Shiners are very aggressive and will compete with small bass and native Bluegill for food. They are also extremely prolific and will soon overpower the native fish. Golden Shiners are valuable fish in a very large reservoirs where landlock Stripers or Hybrids can control the population. The answer to your quesiton about helping the bass population grow depends more on pond management, which the State Fish and Game department should be able to assist with if the pond owners are interested.
Jim Smith
Thanks for the info, thats good to know
I wasnt talking about any state program, just me buying them myself.
Its just that I recently discovered this small pond and me and my 3 friends practically own it (one of us literally owns it) and we really want to do something to make it a good fishing spot for it. I have always been really interested in fisheries and how to establish one in a pond.
Golden Shiners take dry flies and small poppers if they get big enough - has happened in one local lake were live bait escapees reproduced.
True, they are always used at one of my local ponds, and I have caught them up to a foot on bread
I experienced both sides of this story one afternoon. I was fishing witha buddy one afternoon and the bass fishing was really slow so I switched over to fishing for gills with a small white marabou fly. In between gills I hooked into a 7 inch golden shiner and landed it. My buddy then pulled out a rubber worm hook tied it on and impaled the shiner onto it. Needless to say five minutes after he threw that shiner out into the pond a 6 pound bass nailed it. Do date it is still his biggest bass that he landed.
Who has time for stress when there are fish to catch.
Nick
Any suggestions for a really good golden shiner imitation fly? I’ve found a new fishery [to me] that is said to have golden shiners as a main food source
I like Blanton’s flashtail Whistlers, brown over yellow bucktail with an olive collar. This fly gives a nice wide profile.
they hit the same flies that I have been using for gills, umany times as soon as it hit the water:
Anthony,
See if you can get your hands on the recent On The Water magazine that has a Shad article on the cover. They talk about invasive species of bait fish and the problem it causes. I discourage you from trying a bait feeding program. (PS if you get the mag there is a picture of me in the Shad story)
jed
Thanks for the replyes guys. I might just stock a few full grown carp in there for sporting purpose
The carp stocking idea is very bad also. A pond can use carp for weed control but they have to be sterile—and can only be bought thru a fish farm. When carp multiply they get big 20 pounds or more and eat fish egg,stire up mad etc.
Bill
Its is a bad idea for trout and bass fisherman, not for carp fisherman. There are already 5 carp in there and I love targeting them but they are very shy. SO, the more the merrier
Be bought? Why? is it illegal to take a carp from a river?
I dont want fry, I want full grown carp. I know the second i released a fry into their the bass would make a snack out of it
[This message has been edited by Anthony (edited 09 May 2006).]
Bass will not eat trash fish–Carp or Gold Fish Do a little research on Google. Carp will eat every egg a bass or bluegill will lay if given the chance.
Bill
It is illegal to transport live fish (other than bait fish) in Massachusetts without a special permit. What you propose is potentially a problem. Adding species to a stable balance can throw that balance of. There are about a million examples of man trying to do that and creting more problems than he/we solved.
If you don’t have the fish you love, love the fish you have.
jed
Bass will not eat trash fish–Carp or Gold Fish Do a little research on Google. Carp will eat every egg a bass or bluegill will lay if given the chance.
Bill
You can get into a lot of crap if you get caught introducing fish, not worth it.
Who has time for stress when there are fish to catch.
Nick
Thanks for telling me. I didnt know that I couldnt do that even in a privately owned pond.
On the other hand,
Introducing carp would not ruin the ecosytem, because carp are the ecosystem I want. I want to catch the carp more than the bass and bluegill. There are already more carp in that pond than there are bass over 1 pound, yet there are tons of bluegill and bass.
Just about every pond I know of has a stable ecosystem of bass and carp.