8 minute read
Pond Management
When Smaller May Be Better
Article and photos by DR. BILLY HIGGINBOTHAM, Professor Emeritus, The Texas A&M University System
This 1/3-acre pond is ideal for producing catfish but is too deep to harvest by seining.
Fifty years ago, the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, now Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, embarked on a series of catfish production result demonstrations utilizing small farm ponds scattered across the northeastern one-third of the state.
The demonstrations’ stated goal was to investigate the viability of using small existing impoundments for catfish production, most of which served primarily as livestock water sources. The idea was managing these waters to successfully increase farm nutrition, recreation and sometimes income by raising edible-size channel and/or blue catfish.
Texas is home to more than 1 million private impoundments and many, if not most, are well under one surface acre in size. While generally deemed as too small to manage for largemouth bass on a sustained basis, AgriLife Extension fisheries specialists believed that these smaller waters were suitable production units for species that would accept a pelleted ration.
To be successful, a series of Best Management Practices had to be developed in order to demonstrate the viability of improving unmanaged ponds that typically averaged only 100 pounds of fish (many of which were under-sized and or undesirable species for consumption) per surface acre.
Over the next decade, the Best Management Practices became wellestablished following hundreds of these catfish production demonstrations that proved that with proper management, these small waters that previously produced 100 pounds of fish per surface acre increased 10-fold to 1,000 pounds of edible-sized catfish per surface acre per year.
One of the challenges in evaluating the success of these demonstrations was the ability to monitor total fish production by harvesting and weighing all of the fish produced at the end of the annual growing season in November-December. While many ponds can be utilized to produce catfish up to the 1,000-pound level, only those that could be harvested via seining provided the total production data needed to evaluate success.
As word spread about the viability of these small waters producing 1,000 pounds of edible-size catfish per surface
acre per year, an increased number of landowners built ponds designed to allow a complete annual harvest by seining so re-stocking could take place the next spring.
The results were in. Small ponds with good water quality and no competitor fish species stocked up to 1,000 6-8-inchlong fingerlings per surface acre in March or April would put on at least 1 pound of weight gain by cool weather in November. The pound of weight gain would result from the regular feeding of a quality floating catfish ration that would only require a total of 1 ½ to 2 pounds of feed fed for each pound of weight gain.
The BMPs developed as a result of this success story still apply to Texas farm ponds today. The added benefit is that if these ponds are primarily used for livestock watering, catfish production does not interfere with that purpose or vice versa.
Let’s take a closer look at these smaller ponds and the practices necessary to turn them into catfish production factories. It does not have to be a pond that is seinable (most aren’t), but it does need to be a pond that you can easily monitor—that pond in the Back Forty that requires a four-wheel drive and dry conditions to reach may not be the best candidate.
POND SIZE: Any pond from 1/10 to 1 surface acres will do. Keep in mind that a 1/10 surface acre pond is capable of producing 100 pounds of edible catfish per year—more than enough for several family and friends fish fries!
WATER QUALITY: A pH of 6 1/2 to 8 1/2 and total alkalinity of more than 20 ppm is ideal. Many East Texas ponds built on acid soils will need agricultural limestone applications to adjust pH and total alkalinity.
Off color water? No problem. I actually like muddy ponds for catfish production as you do not encounter as many aquatic weed problems. And because the catfish are on a commercial ration, they will not taste muddy.
EXISTING FISH POPULATIONS:
Since many of these ponds contain existing fish populations, do yourself a favor and remove these fish prior to stocking your catfish. Everything that is swimming in the pond either wants to eat the feed intended for the catfish or wants to eat the fingerlings themselves. Rotenone is the fish piscicide of choice for remove existing fish.
STOCKING RATES/TIMING: Not everyone wants or needs 1,000 catfish per surface acre. That is ok—you can reduce the stocking rate of 6-8 inch fingerlings according to your needs. An added benefit to this reduced stocking rate approach is you buy yourself some time before the total weight of fish exceeds 1,000 pounds per surface acre, a level considered to be the carrying capacity of typical Texas farm ponds without additional management necessary to increase their carrying capacity, during the hot summer months.
As for when to stock, I prefer early in the growing season, typically March or April. This corresponds with warming water temperatures and triggers the catfish fingerlings to feed on a consistent basis.
SUPPLEMENTAL FEED/FEEDING:
This is where a well-meaning pond owner sometimes runs off the rails. Yes, catfish will eat range cubes, dog food or a steady diet of bread (so will you if you get hungry enough!) but none of these meet the nutritional requirements of our targeted catfish species.
Select a quality floating catfish ration that contains between 28 percent and 34 percent crude protein. You may need to select one with a little smaller pellet size initially so the recently stocked fingerlings can easily swallow the pellets.
Be consistent with your feeding protocol. Typically, most pond owners feed early or late in the day under low light conditions. Feed in the same location at each feeding and the catfish will quickly become trained to your truck driving up to the bank or your footsteps on the dock.
To maximize production and growth, regardless of the stocking rate utilized, plan on feeding at least six days a week from April through October with some pond owners feeding all seven days per week. The fish should be fed all of the floating ration they will consume in 15 minutes.
Fish that have been vigorously feeding and then one day abruptly stop may be a signal that something is wrong. It may be due to something as simple as a weather change that puts the fish offfeed temporarily. If it occurs during the
These 45 channel catfish weighing a total of 315 pounds were harvested in one night using a 4-foot long trap net.
summer months, especially on hot, still, cloudy days, it could also signal dropping oxygen which may require emergency supplemental aeration.
If low oxygen is suspected, it’s a good idea to check the pond at daylight, when oxygen levels are at their lowest level to ascertain if low oxygen conditions exist. Catfish “piping,” swimming lethargically right along the surface, at daylight is a pretty good sign that the oxygen content has become critically low.
Winter feeding is best practiced weekly by picking a warm late afternoon after several days of warm temperature. Don’t expect the fish to eat much and weight gain will be minimal. Regardless, the fish should enter the Spring growing season in better condition than if not fed at all.
FISH HARVEST: This is the reason you stocked and managed your catfish pond, right? Obviously, angler harvest will be a great source of recreation for family and friends.
Even trotlines are sometimes used to insure enough harvest for a weekend fish fry. Other viable harvest tools include baited trap and hoop nets and even the occasional gill net. If that pond does happen to be “seinable,” then harvest of almost fish present can be accomplished in one fell swoop.
RECORDKEEPING: Keep up with the stocking rate, the number and average size of fish harvested. This is the best way to estimate the pounds of fish per surface acre remaining in the pond.
Given that the carrying capacity of most ponds will be 1,000 pounds of fish per surface acre during the summer months, pond owners stocking at higher rates (e.g., 1,000 fingerlings per surface acre) will find it necessary to harvest almost all of the production each year. This is a tall order unless the pond is seinable, although certain partial harvest tools including trap/hoop nets can be very efficient at removing considerable numbers (and weight) of catfish.
For many pond owners, an alternative strategy will be to use a reduced stocking rate, which allows multiple years of fishing before reaching the carrying capacity requiring enhanced harvest pressure.
Whenever possible, catfish should be removed before they reach sexual maturity at 3 to 4 years of age. Despite opinions to the contrary, channel and blue catfish do not require running water to spawn and their reproduction can lead to over-population in a farm pond in just a few years.
Catfish stocking season is just around the corner. So, next time you drive by that small pond to check the cows, think of it as not only a livestock water source but as a resource for producing golden fried fish fillets that beg only for some good slaw and fries.
Until then, Good Fishing!
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