Pond Management 101
by Greg Grimes

Imagine yourself one June day in the near future walking out in the backyard and down to your private fish pond. You slide on a Texas-rigged sand-colored lizard before casting into one of your favorite homemade brushpiles when you feel a tap-tap-tap. You reel down to free the slack out of your line right before you slam your rod tip straight up in the air, a good hook-set. Three minutes later you land an 8 1/2-lb. hawg. Impressive, yes, but something that happens once-in-a-blue-moon? Absolutely not, at least not after implementing the proper pond management techniques.

There are over 90,000 ponds and small lakes in Georgia, and unfortunately most of these are not seeing their full potential. By practicing pond management techniques, you can dramatically improve your pond's fishing quality. The information in this article will send you through a step-by-step process to help you get the most out of your pond.

Aquatic Weed Control

I'll start you on the right road to managing your pond by looking at one of the biggest problems with small bodies of water, weeds. You know what I'm talking about. You can't even throw a Rat-L-Trap in some ponds without getting an accumulation of the slimy mess on your treble hooks. You may be asking yourself why are weeds bad when some of your favorite fishing holes on reservoirs are the weed beds. In a small body of water like a pond you can quickly have greater than 30 percent weed coverage where weeds go from being beneficial to harmful. These weeds create too many places for bluegill to hide and results in slower growth rates for bass, and a stunted bluegill population. Fortunately, there are two solutions to lowering weed populations in your lake, herbicides or stocking sterile grass carp.

Herbicides are the most expensive route to take, but they provide a quick weed kill. Most of these environmentally-safe herbicides are available at feed-and-seed stores. To decide which herbicide you need, first have the weed properly identified. You can do this by calling your County Cooperative Extension Service and giving them an oral description of the plant. If an identity can't be reached over the phone you can simply mail a sample of the weed and an identification will be made for free. Now, just by reading the herbicide label, you can identify which herbicide will be best for controlling the particular weeds in your pond.

The application of a particular herbicide in your pond depends on several variables such as time of day, application methods and your water quality. Answers to these questions can be found by calling a Fisheries biologist at the Department of Natural Resources, your County Extension Agent or a licensed commercial applicator.

When used properly, herbicides are very effective, but they do not keep the weeds from coming back, especially in shallow areas. Your pond may require one to five additional treatments a year.

A second method for weed control is the addition of sterile grass carp. These fish are strictly vegetarians and offer a more economical choice than herbicides. When stocked in proper numbers they will keep grass mowed for up to five years. Generally, you want to stock 10 to 12 carp per acre, and they run about seven dollars apiece for the 8- to 10-inchers. Look in the Farmers Market bulletin where there are usually numerous grass carp suppliers listed. I believe this is the best, least time-consuming way to control weeds because all you do is put the carp in the pond and let them munch away. However, you need to cover your spillway to prevent grass carp from escaping.

Fertilization/Lime Applications

Probably the most misunderstood aspect of pond management is fertilization. I can't tell you how many times I have heard the wrong advice on why and how to fertilize a pond. In many cases, unless a pond is fished and harvested regularly, fertilization is not necessary. In fact, a haphazard fertilization program will only lead to stunted fish populations. However, proper fertilization can be a powerful fish-producing tool.

One misconception about fertilization is that it's used to kill weeds. It doesn't kill weeds, but if applied early it can prevent weeds from forming.

In a nut shell, proper fertilization limits light visibility to the bottom of the lake, not allowing sunlight to reach the plants. However, it's critical to kill your weeds before you fertilize, because putting fertilizer on weeds is like adding fuel to the fire. The weeds will soak up the nutrients from the fertilizer, causing rapid growth.

Another misconception about fertilizer is that it's used to grow bigger fish. What fertilizer does instead is increase a lake's carrying capacity.

A fertilizer's main purpose is to create phytoplankton, a microscopic green algae that serves as the base of the food chain. This phytoplankton supplies food for microscopic organisms, which supplies food for insect larvae and small fish, which supplies food for bigger fish. Having more food at the bottom of the food chain will create more fish at the top. When done correctly, a pond can go from producing 100 pounds of fish per acre to 300 pounds per acre.

Before you fertilize you need to check the pond's alkalinity, a measure of the pH stability in your pond. This can be done with a simple water test kit or with a soil sample taken from the bottom of your pond. Your alkalinity level should be above 15 mg/L. If not, applying 2-3 tons of agricultural lime per acre should raise the alkalinity to desirable levels for at least three years.

There are two main types of fertilizer: liquid and granular. Traditionally, the best way to apply granular is to build a shallow platform roughly 18 inches under the surface and place a split bag of fertilizer directly on it. To use liquid fertilizer pour it in the prop wash of an outboard or dilute it 10-to-1 with water and cast the mixture into the pond with a bucket. Two new fertilizers from Scotts show promise for making things easier for pond owners. Scott has introduced a granular, timed-release fertilizer that supplies nutrients throughout the fertilizing season and a water-soluble powder that can be spread by simply casting it into your pond.

Fertilization can begin when the surface temperature reaches a steady 60 degrees, and treatment generally stops sometime in the early fall when the water temperature drops below 65 degrees. Generally, the best kind of fertilizers for Georgia ponds are the ones with high phosphorus levels like 20-20-5 granular or 10-34-0 liquid.

Add more fertilizer in your early treatments to help kick-start your phytoplankton bloom. Later in the treatment cycle the pond requires only about one gallon or 40 pounds per acre about every three weeks depending on your phytoplankton levels. This can be checked by placing a white disc under the water. You want your visibility level to be between 18-24 inches. When you see the disc at distances greater than 24 inches, add fertilizer.

Fish Population Management

Now we come down to the real nitty-gritty of pond management, working with your fish. First, you need to decide on a specific management plan for your pond. Do you desire trophy bass, trophy bluegill or a healthy balance of the two? Next, you'll need an analysis of the predator/prey balance in your pond. There are several ways to handle this.

One way is to string up the rod 'n reel and go fishing. Catching only a few bass and lots of small bluegills means a bluegill-heavy pond. If you catch lots of skinny bass in the 10- to 12-inch range, but you have catches of huge bluegills, your pond is bass heavy. Catching a wide variety of bass sizes and keeper bluegill equals a balanced pond.

If you want a more detailed analysis of the predator/prey balance in your pond DNR will seine your pond for free. There is a waiting list for this, so expect a possible delay before they can survey your pond. The seining is done from June to September so get on the waiting list now. If you don't want to wait, you can pay a fisheries consultant. DNR should provide a list.

If your desire is to catch double-hand-sized bluegill and lots of smaller bass, then your harvest plan is simple. All you do is harvest the smaller bream and maintain a bass-heavy pond. This results in fewer bream with the ones left having more food for getting fat. Ponds like this are excellent fishing areas for youngsters who are just starting to learn about the joys of fishing.

A well-balanced pond will result in good fishing for eatable-size bluegill and you'll also be able to pull out an occasional 5-lb. bass. This can be achieved by removing 25 to 50 pounds of bluegill and 10 pounds of bass per acre per year.

If catching wall-hanger largemouths is your goal, then you'll need to look at a different management plan. First, I need to tell you that it takes quite a bit of effort to consistently produce healthy, lunker bass. I'm talking about the kind of bass that it takes to win a week in the GON Fishin' Contest. If you really want big bass like this, remember that your bream fishing will be poor.

If your pond is bass heavy, harvest 25 pounds of bass per acre over the course of the first management year. The bass you want to remove are the stunted 10- to 12-inch fish. After you get past the first year, you should then remove 10 pounds per acre, per year.

In addition to this, consider adding some additional bass forage to your pond. A good choice is threadfin shad or fathead minnows, with the threadfin being my favorite. They are heavy spawners, adding tons of food for larger bass, especially when the pond is fertilized. I don't recommend golden shiners or gizzard shad. They quickly take over a pond since they reach sizes greater than most bass can eat.

Introduction of Additional Species

This a quick-and-dirty look at the stocking of additional species in a bass/bluegill pond. When introducing these additional species, remember that anything under eight inches could end up as bass food.

The most common additional species entered in a pond is channel catfish. These fish are popular because they are so fun to catch and can be added without disturbing your bream and bass populations. Normal stocking rates are generally between 50 and 200 per acre.

Hybrid bream, a cross between bluegill and sunfish, are often added to a pond because they can reach sizes greater than normal bluegill and are known for their aggressive nature. However, this can result in the establishment of undesirable green sunfish populations. Hybrid bass don't do well in a pond when their only food source is bream. However, they do great when fed pelleted foods.

I don't recommend stocking crappie in any pond that is less than 50 acres. Most ponds smaller than this lack what it takes to consistently produce big crappie, however this is not the real problem. Crappie reproduce about the same time as bass and the newly-hatched bass can't eat crappie fry as they do bluegill later in the summer. What this means is that crappie have successful reproductions and can quickly take over a pond. The only way you can have a good bass/crappie population is to harvest nearly every crappie you catch before they take over.

It will take some time, money and a few phone calls, but with this information you will be well on your way to transforming that old, uneventful pond into that pole-snatchin', cooler-fillin', fish-producin' pond you've always dreamed about.

Successful Pond Stocking
By Greg Grimes

Fall is the time of year to begin stocking your pond for a successful future - whether you want big bream, big bass or other fish. As a pond-management consultant, I get numerous calls from pond owners who have received misguided, confusing advice on fish stocking. If you're interested in how to properly stock a pond to achieve your fishing goals, then read on.

First, decide the goals for your pond. Do you want trophy bass, quality bream, or a good balance of both? Just remember to have realistic goals. You cannot manage for trophy beam and trophy bass in the same pond, however, you can have decent fishing of both.

After setting your fishing goals, you are ready to get started. Whether the pond is new or drained you must ensure that it is devoid of all fish before stocking. You may have to hire a licensed applicator to apply rotenone to kill any potentially problematic fish. When all the fish are gone and the lake is full, you are ready to begin your stocking program.

For a balanced pond I suggest you go by the DNR Fisheries recommendations. These recommendations will lead to catches of good, pan-frying sized bluegill and shellcracker, several good bass and the occasional wall hanger. DNR suggests 500 bream per acre, with 80 percent being bluegill and 20 percent shellcracker. This mix allows good bass forage since bluegill spawn many times during the summer months. The shellcracker or redear don't reproduce as much, but may get larger than the bluegill since they feed on a slightly different food niche. The 80/20 mix should be stocked in the fall or as late as March before stocking the largemouth bass at a rate of 50 bass per acre in May.

You can obtain free fish if you fill out an application from your local DNR Fisheries office before October. You may also contact them for a list of private fish dealers. In addition, the Farmers Market Bulletin is a good source for dealers around the state.

For a quality-bream pond, stock the same numbers above. However, do not make a special effort to keep a lot of bass. You will end up with a "bass heavy" pond typical of many found in Georgia. This allows for more smaller, fun-to-catch bass. These bass will cause a reduction in the total number of surviving bluegill, but the remaining bream get big and fat and are still found in high enough numbers to fill a stringer.

Many folks believe the key to quality bream fishing is the stocking of high numbers of hybrid bream or Georgia Giants. If you don't care about the bass fishing and don't mind the expense of draining the pond every couple of years, stocking these aggressive bream may work. They're a cross of bluegill and green sunfish, and after about two years they return to their native stocks through subsequent reproductions, and you are left with a pond full of green sunfish and bluegill. The green sunfish does not grow to a large size, and they compete with other bream and bluegill in the pond. Once this happens, it is best to resort to pulling the plug and starting over.

Many people brag about how quickly these hybrid bream grow when placed on a supplemental feeding program. What they don't realize is coppernose bluegill respond just as well to floating fish food. The coppernose is the subspecies of bluegill grown by most hatcheries and most commonly stocked in Georgia. They grow quick and big when fed and don't have the management hassles of the hybrid bream.

Other fish may be better suited for stocking in ponds that are less than one acre. Trout can be stocked in October once the water cools and may survive as late as June in some middle and north Georgia ponds. The brown trout can tolerate slightly warmer temperatures but may not be as aggressive as rainbows. Just remember they need higher oxygen than most other species and will go belly up once they can't find water colder than 70 degrees.

Channel catfish can be stocked with bream and bass at a stocking density up to 200 per acre with little negative effects if fed floating fish food. Some ponds less than a half acre in size do well when stocked with just channel catfish. Stock any time of the year at a rate up to 500/acre if the fish are being fed. If not, less than 250/acre would be better.

Hybrid striper/white bass, or "wipers" as they say up north, will grow quickly in a pond when fed a pelleted fish food. However, in just a bream pond they will not have enough food to grow. They also require better water quality than most species. Stock at a rate of less than 250/acre depending on your goals.

Stripers do poorly in ponds as do crappie. Crappie have a tendency to take over a pond. Because they reproduce earlier or at the same time as bass, they are not controlled like bream hatched later in the summer months, and they can ruin fishing for all species if left unchecked. Stock crappie only if you intend to harvest them in large numbers every year.

Okay, on to what most folks want to know - how do I stock my lake if I want to grow some Georgia lunkers? First of all, I suggest not hoping for trophy bass over seven pounds unless you have a pond of at least five to 10 acres. You simply have to limit the number of bass so much to achieve this goal that most folks are not happy. The basic premise I use when managing for larger bass is to stock less bass than the normal 10-to-1 prey-to-predator ratio. I suggest a stocking of 1,000 bream per acre, again 80 percent coppernose bluegill and 20 percent shellcracker, well before the bass are stocked. You can stock your new or renovated pond as early as a year before the bass.

Establishing the bream population before the bass are stocked as fingerlings in early June is the key. Try to get the population well established by fertilizing or feeding or both. This way, once the bass obtain a size of 3-inches and start requiring a diet of fish, there's plenty of forage to go around. Some folks even stock fathead minnows at a rate of 2,000-5,000/acre. This may help the growth rate early on before the bass eliminate them from the pond.

Once the bream are well established stock 50 to 75 bass per acre. There are two subspecies of largemouth bass to consider stocking. The Florida strain is known for good growth rates and an overall large size. The northern subspecies is known for its aggressive nature. Stocking Florida strain bass may result in many large bass that may be more difficult to catch. I suggest stocking the fairly new F1 cross. This is a cross of the two subspecies and may exhibit both an aggressive nature and good growth. Some folks even get more creative and stock half pure Florida and half F1.

In ponds managed for quality or trophy bass, stocking threadfin shad will diversity the bass's diet and should lead to even better growth. The best time to stock these is in the early spring just before they start to spawn. You want the shad to spawn just after stocking, so that you are not just providing a bass frenzy for a few days. The bigger the threadfin the better. A stocking load consists of 1,000 to 6,0000 shad depending on size, and should be efficient for stocking up to 10 acres. Keep in mind they may have a partial to complete winter die-off in middle or north Georgia.

Some folks want to add other forage for their bass. Again the threadfin shad is the best choice. Gizzard shad and blueback herring can get quite large and even predate on baby bass. They will become a management nightmare in most ponds after just a few years and will have to be poisoned for removal, not an easy task without killing the bass as well. Golden shiners are not as much of a concern, but they also can get too large, and may consume the eggs of other fish.

When stocking an existing lake you will need to approach things in a different manner. First determine the current fish populations in your pond. Are there good or bad species? What is the balance between the prey (bream) and predator (bass)? To answer some of these questions, go fishing, or seining or electroshocking may be necessary. Once you know what's in your pond you can determine if stocking is the right answer. In some cases you may want to drain and follow the above directions.

When stocking that existing lake remember that if there are bass in the pond, smaller stocked fish may quickly fall victim. As a rule of thumb, to reestablish the bream population it is best to stock intermediate bream four inches or bigger if you can find a source. This size is sexually mature and can make a quick impact after surviving the stocking.

I once had a request for some adult bass. After a series of questions I talked the caller out of buying them. He had been told the reason his bass were not growing was that they were inbreeding, when in reality he simply had too many in the pond and stocking more was the worst thing to do. In another circumstance, a pond owner told me he purchased over 30,000 hybrid bream for a ¾ acre lake and wanted to know why they weren't growing. Remember, use your common sense and the above recommendations when stocking that new or existing lake. Talk to several fish dealers, a reputable fisheries biologist or give DNR a call at your local office or call the state headquarters at (770) 918-6418.

Some of you have spent hours planning and picking out the perfect spot for your dream lake. Others have an existing lake. In either case, do yourself a favor and take the time and money to stock it right. Following the above recommendations will get you started. Formulate and follow a good management plan, and you will have a pond that can be enjoyed by friends and family for years to come.

Do-It-Yourself Hawg Pond
By Greg Grimes

Another good topwater hit! Man, I couldn't believe it!

The rain was starting to come down as the front moved in when she exploded on the Pop-R. I made sure to wait to feel the hit before setting the hook, and this one fought even harder than the other two 5-pounders I had just landed. As she came up, jumping completely out of the water, I saw just how big she really was. When I finally got her to shore I quickly put the scales on her: 6 lbs. 11 ozs., the biggest bass of the morning.

This occurred last spring on a pond that for more than 20 years only occasionally produced a trophy bass. However, three years beforehand we started a trophy-bass-management program. I can hardly wait to see what it can produce in a few more years.

You may have read my article "Pond Management 101" in the June '99 issue of GON. Several readers called me with questions, and almost all of them wanted more specific information about managing for trophy bass. So, here you go. If you want a truly great bass pond then this article should get you started in the right direction.v Most hunters know you need three things to produce big whitetails: age, nutrition and genetics. Largemouths are not much different. One of the good things about bass, though, is that you can continue to catch the same fish as you watch it grow. However, releasing all the bass back into the pond is not what's needed every time.

Bubba Mauldin, a fisheries biologist with DNR, explained this concept to me a few years ago. He said look at your situation like there is a "bass pie" made of bluegill. If you have 100 bass eating from that pie there is not much to go around, but if you limit the pie to 50 bass they all get a bigger slice and start to grow faster. This is the power of harvesting fish, especially when a pond is overcrowded. The next thing you can do is increase the size of the pie with proper fertilization and supplemental feeding, and add some more ingredients in the form of threadfin shad. More on that later.

The final key is genetics. Georgia bass have a good mix of genes, easily pushing the scales over 10 pounds in the proper environment. You may be able to get your hands on a bass that can genetically become a new world record, but stock him in a majority of the stunted bass ponds in Georgia and he may never even reach three pounds.

Before you commit to a trophy bass program, you should ask yourself if this is really what you want to do. Can you handle the negative aspect that the bream fishing will not be as good as in the past, or that in a small pond of less than five acres the numbers of bass in the pond will be limited? If so, the first step to starting your program is determining the current balance of your pond. Do you typically catch 10-to 12-inch bass, with only an occasional lunker? If so, you need to form a selective-harvest plan.

Selective harvest is an important aspect of trophy-bass management in spite of what some fishermen you see on television might say. Basically, if you're catching bass that are nice and fat then throw 'em back. However, if the fish are skinny and all the same size then the "bass pie" is being fed on by too many fish. Removing these stunted bass frees up food for others.

Should you keep the trophy 9-pounder your wife caught? It's her biggest ever, and guess what, she wants to hang it over the mantle. Even when your goal is for 12-lb lunkers, I would let her keep it, but throw back most other 9-pounders. The large bass are not the most important fish for reproduction, so occasionally taking one out will do little harm to the pond.

One of the best ways to increase your catch of trophy bass is the addition of structure. Many ponds in Georgia are devoid of structure with a bottom that resembles a bathtub. Structure doesn't create more fish, but it definitely concentrates them so the educated fisherman knows where the big boys are hanging out. Get creative, add cover that will provide shade and ambush points. Remember to place the cover in several depth ranges. Rocks, trees and tires can all help liven up a plain pond bottom, and in large ponds some aquatic plants are desirable.

Adding structure in the way of humps, ridges or ditches means draining the lake or constructing a new one. However, you can add some good cover to an existing lake easier than you think. Simply throwing in a Christmas tree helps, but imagine how many more fish will hang out there if it is standing up. Johnny Tanner, an "armchair biologist" from Carrollton who knows as much about structure as anyone I know, came up with an easy and efficient design.

Take a 5-gallon bucket and fill it with 4-inch plus diameter green hardwood limbs, or a Christmas tree. In the bottom of the bucket place a 4x4 block. Pour in a ready-mix concrete, add water and let it harden. When hard turn it over and secure two 1x4s to the bottom with spiral shank nails driven through the bucket and into the block. Simply spin the 1x4s to make a cross and drop it off the side of the boat.

In order to maximize the benefits of your forage you should start a proper fertilization program. This is especially important on small bodies of water of less than 10 acres. This way you can maximize the potential number of big bass in the pond. Be sure to rid the pond of noxious weeds with herbicides or grass carp before fertilizing. The weeds will only get worse, and they use up the fertilizer's nutrients needed for your plankton.

Fertilizer means more phytoplankton, which are fed upon by zooplankton, which generates more aquatic insects, more bluegill and thus more bass. When done right, fertilizing several times per year to maintain a visibility of less than 24 inches will mean twice as much bass food being produced. There are several types of fish-pond fertilizers available at feed/seed stores. Follow the directions, don't just cast granular or liquid fertilizer in the pond. The new water-soluble fertilizers dissolve instantly and can be cast from shore. A good fertilization program will run you about $45 to $55 per acre, per year.

To add even more to the "bass pie" you can start a supplemental feeding program. Bluegill readily eat floating catfish food. Get the smaller pellets and make sure it is at least 32 percent protein. A feeder is easier and more efficient than throwing it out by hand once a day. If fed several times per day, bluegill will be healthier, meaning they will reproduce more, resulting in more bass food.

Feeding may also help sustain a bluegill fishery in a trophy-bass pond. The feeders should be able to hold at least 50 pounds of food and throw feed up to five times per day. Supplemental feeding follows a timetable similar to fertilizing: Start when water temperatures are above 65 and stop in the fall when it falls below that level.

The third way to increase the size of the "bass pie" is the stocking of another forage species. There are several species of fish I do not recommend stocking in your pond, including gizzard shad, golden shiners, crappie, and hybrid bream, to name a few. Gizzard shad can grow to be too large to be eaten by most bass. These big fish take up plankton that could be used by other eatable-size prey. Golden shiners get quite large and are egg predators, limiting the reproduction of other species.

What I do recommend is threadfin shad or fathead minnows, sometimes called "tuffies." The fatheads are good when stocking a new pond. They reproduce at high rates, giving newly-stocked fingerling bass a jump-start. But they reach a maximum size of only about two inches, and in an established bass pond rarely survive long.

In an established pond, stocking threadfin shad can take your pond to the next level. The key to stocking is to do it at the right time and in the right numbers. You want to establish the populations, not provide a one-time bass buffet. One of the limitations of the threadfin is temperature. They may die off when the water temperature falls below 41 degrees, with partial wintertime die-offs common in north Georgia ponds.

The best time for stocking threadfin shad is from February until May. How many are enough? The answer is enough to get them started in the pond before the bass eat them all up. When stocking during the right time of year, 400 adults per acre may be plenty. If they are mostly small threadfin shad of less than two inches, several thousand per acre are necessary so that they reach reproductive size before they are eliminated from the pond. Threadfin shad are schooling fish and sometimes have better survival on large ponds with more open water, so a 2-acre pond may need to be stocked with just as many as a 10-acre pond. By the way, this schooling nature seems to also create a better pond for top water lures!

So you have increased the size of your bass pie and controlled the number of mouths feeding on the pie. Now is the time to consider genetics. Stocking new bass fingerlings in established ponds is difficult, so it is best to do this with a new pond.

There are many debates over what is best, and each subspecies has its own advantages. There are just two known subspecies of largemouth bass, Florida and northern. There's not a Texas or southeast or whatever else you may have heard about. The difference between the two is their size and aggressiveness. The northern subspecies is more aggressive than Florida, and the Florida grows bigger but is more difficult to catch. A new hybrid of northern and Florida known as an F1 intergrade may have the advantages of both.

Most of the country has northern-strain largemouth bass. The Florida strain has been stocked all across the country, and has done quite well. The big bass that are being caught by bass pros seem to be intergrades that are produced when the native northerns breed with the stocked Floridas.

Most Georgia bass are natural intergrades that are a mix of the two subspecies, with Floridas having less influence the farther north in Georgia you go. Many feel the world record caught by George Perry was a natural intergrade. Stocking these fish may result in rapid growth, an aggressive nature and trophy sizes when stocked in ponds that are properly managed for trophy bass.

I hope this advice gets you on your way to producing trophy bass. Feel free to call me for further advice or see last June's issue for more basic details. Follow the advice, and you'll be on your way to multiple-lunker days!

From: Southern Ponds and Wildlife Spring 2002 Issue

Do Your Fish Need A Physical Exam? Try Electroshocking
By Greg Grimes

If you're like most pond owners you probably have some questions about the condition of the fish in your pond. Are they as fat as they should be? How can you tell? The techniques described below provide ways to determine if your bass are as healthy as you desire whether you are a novice or experienced pond owner.

Many of you have heard of electrofishing, but what is it and how does it work? Electrofishing is the most advanced pond management, fish analysis tool available to pond owners today. It gives fisheries biologists a powerful insight into your fish population and allows them to give your bass and bluegill a thorough physical exam. If you have never had this performed on your pond, you may have misconceptions about how it works.

A typical electrofishing boat transmits an electrical current from a generator through a sophisticated control box to a set of electrodes that are dangled from the front of the boat into the pond. An electrical field is formed around a relatively small area of the electrodes. Fish within this field are stunned and float to the surface where they can be captured with a long-handled dip net. When performed at the right time of the year, it provides a great way to quickly get a representative sample of bass, bluegill, and other fish that might be present. This does not harm the fish. In fact, almost all state and federal agencies obtain their brood fish by electrofishing.

Electroshock analysis provides insight into the current state of your fish population. It provides critical data needed to set recommendations to achieve the goals you have for your pond. The data gathered is used by fisheries biologists to determine predator to prey balance, competitive species presence, carrying capacities, catch per unit effort, total species composition, etc. Electrofishing is a strong tool that you should consider for good fisheries management. In this issue, you can find many qualified fisheries professionals that can provide this valuable service.

Even without electrofishing you can perform one of the more simple analysis techniques - a Relative Weight (RW) index. If you're a good fisherman, and you can catch 10 to 20 bass in your pond, then you can calculate the RW index, with a little help from the Relative Weight Table and me.

Relative weight is a measure of the current condition of your fish. It determines the plumpness of the fish and indicates if it is relatively fat or skinny. The relative weight index is the ratio of the actual fish weight to a standard fish weight. To calculate your relative weight index, divide the actual weight of your fish by the standard weight for a fish of the same length listed in the RW table below. Not too difficult, huh?

RWs need to be performed with accurate measurements, especially on the smaller fish. Measure fish to the nearest ½ inch and weigh to the nearest 1/10 pound. This requires an accurate scale. To provide an example of how RW is calculated, you catch an 11.5-inch bass weighing 0.6 pounds. Look on the RW table to get the standard weight for a bass 11.5-inches. As you see, it is 0.8 pounds. Divide the weight of your bass by the standard weight. RW = 0.6/0.8. This bass would have a 75 percent RW. If your goal is trophy bass, strive for RWs greater than 100 percent.

It is best to perform the analyses throughout the year on several size classes of bass. This will indicate the overall condition of your bass at year one. Then you can compare the RW over the next year to see if the bass are getting fatter, staying the same, or getting skinnier. RW can also be computed for your bluegill to get even more clues on the overall condition of your fish population.

In the south, a RW of over 85 percent indicates an average, healthy largemouth bass. I've seen RWs less than 60 percent in some lakes. This may be due to low fertility, excessive weed growth, or presence of competitive species. In most cases, however, it is because not enough bass have been removed over the years. By simply pulling out a target number of bass, you can see the RWs go up. Ponds have gone from 60 percent RWs to over 100 percent in about a three-year period, by doing nothing more than removing the right numbers and sizes of bass. Can you just imagine how the bass would grow by combining harvest with increased fertility, supplemental feeding of the bluegill, or stocking of an additional forage species?

Once you have calculated your RW, what does it tell you? If you have a low RW for 10 to 14 inch bass, there is not adequate food to go around for these fish. The pond lacks adequate numbers of 3 to 5 inch bluegill. If you perform a RW on adult bluegill and it is high, this is most likely due to large numbers of small bass. In other words, few bluegill survive the predation by bass and once they reach a large size they have little competition for food, making them grow into quality or even trophy bluegill.

If the RW is low on bluegill and high on bass, it indicates there is a lot of competition among the bluegill for food. This, by the way, is probably what you want to see when managing for trophy bass. If both bass and bluegill RWs are low, the pond may have too many weeds or a competitive fish species such as crappie, green sunfish, or bullhead catfish.

If your fishing is not what you want it to be, have the pond electrofished by a qualified fish professional. But, in the mean time, start doing some of your own analysis by performing relative weights. You will enjoy applying some of your own science and tracking the results.

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RELATIVE WEIGHT (RW) TABLE
Largemouth Bass		Bluegill
Length	Std. Wt.	Length	Std. Wt.
10	0.5	6	0.2
10.5	0.6	6.5	0.2
11	0.7	7	0.2
11.5	0.8	7.5	0.3
12	0.9	8	0.4
12.5	1.0	8.5	.4
13	1.1	9	0.6
13.5	1.3	9.5	0.7
14	1.5	10	0.9
14.5	1.6	10.5	1.0
15	1.8	11	1.2
15.5	2.0	11.5	1.4
16	2.2	12	1.6
16.5	2.5	12.5	1.8
17	2.7	13	2.1
17.5	3.0	13.5	2.4
18	3.2	14	2.7
18.5	3.5	14.5	3.0
19	3.9	15	3.4
19.5	4.2
20	4.5
20.5	4.9
21	5.3
21.5	5.7
22	6.2
22.5	6.6
23	7.1
23.5	7.6
24	8.1
24.5	8.7
25	9.3
25.5	9.9