Can you "fish out" a lake???

[Longknife 76]

I found a lake last year, about 3 to 4 acres, right in the middle of a subdivision. A friend moved there and invited me to go fish'n.  He said not many people ever fish this lake. I went 3 times last year and usally average 30 NICE blue gill per trip per person. I went Sunday and brought home 24 keepers, only put back one small one. He also said it is full of nice crappie, I caught a real nice one last year. These are mostly keepers, maybe put back one for every 25 we keep!!!!! HEAVEN!!!!! But how long can a lake keep this up without being "fished out"? That worries me, but for now I'm going again today!!!!...Ed

[Graybeard]

I think it's about 75 pounds per acre that you are supposed to take from a pond per year. If you take more then yes in time you'll fish it out. For sure in a pond of that size over fishing is possible. Mine is a bit less than an acre in size so we definitely could over fish it. I'm fertilizing and feeding so that increases the possible take but still any small body of water can be over fished.

[dakotashooter2]

I'd guess you are already pushing it but it really depends what part of the country you are in or if it is being stocked. Up here a keeper (panfish) may take 5-7 years to grow. Take out a large percentage of the spawners and it may take that long to recover.  A call to the game & fish may get you some idea of how much the pond is carrying if they have surveyed it and give you some insight on how many you should be taking rather than how many you can. Personally I rarely take more than I can use for one meal. 20 years back ,in this area it was common to heavily stock 200-300 acre lakes. Usually after about 5 years the fishing became fantastic. Word would get around and everybody and their brother would pounce on the lakes taking every fish they caught. Even with being heavily stocked it would usually only take a couple of years to "fish out" those lakes and take about 5-6 years to recover again. The game and fish has now implimented slot limits on many such lakes which has helped long term

[JPSaxMan]

Here's an interesting question, sort of going along the lines of "overfishing" but going in the opposite direction.

What happens if you "underfish" a pond or small lake? We have a pond that's maybe two acres...and we kept maybe...10 lbs of fish total out of the past two or three years. Are there any bad things that could happen if a pond is not fished properly? Dunno if that's a stupid question to ask or not, but, just wondering along those lines.

[Graybeard]

Yes it will stunt the growth and you'll end up with only a huge number of tiny fish if you do not take out enough. It really is important to keep a balance in such a small body of water. When I was talking with the state fisheries guy about my pond he stressed the importance of having both bass and bream so the bass would keep the bream numbers in check and the bream would be the primary source of food for the bass. He gave me guidance on when to begin taking out fish and how many pounds per year of both bream and bass to remove.

I of course went against his recommendations and added catfish as well as that's a primary fish of interest to me so I have bass, bream and catfish in my pond.

[fourty-five-seventy]

Here in SW Iowa our ponds (1 to 2 acres) have LargeMouth Bass, bluegill, sunfish, and catfish stocked in them.  The Recommended rule of thumb for keeping fish is 10 panfish to 1 Bass.  Now if you already have a stunted population of fish then you definitely need to keep more of each.   And yes I do belive it is possible to fish out a small lake or pond with too much fishing pressure.  I keep fish to eat but 9 times out of 10 I throw them back and don't keep any.  I just like to get out and relax and have a fun day or afternoon of flyrod fishing.

[NONYA]

Yes you can,I have seen small panfish ponds completly wiped out of sunfish,crappie and perch after they were opened to the public,LM bass seem to hang in there but all the little panfish are gone.

[Mikey]

I have a small pond that I stocked about 8 years ago.  Our State conservation Dept. recommended Largemouth Bass, Bullhead, Golden Shiner Minnow and Fathead Minnow.  They also suggested Crawfish.  Everything in the pond is food for the Bass. 

However, somehow I got this Koi thrown into the mess as well as a few Carp.  Also tossed in a few Goldfish. 

Our Conservation Dept. told me I could never fish the Bullhead out of the pond - once they are there they will always be there.........

But the Carp now pose a problem.  Thye may be bottom feeders but they also take spawn, including Bass spawn.  I am seeing a much fewer number of breeding size Bullhead although the Bass are pretty plentiful.  I need to fish some of the Bass to balance the pond but I don't want to fish out too many of the larger Bass and leave the pond to the agressive Carp. 

I have tried Carp bait, chicken livers, corn meal and peanut butter (I tried, but couldn't get the mixture thick enough to form it into anything or have it stay on the hook), and kernel corn.  I know they will bite on worms but I don't want to go fishing for the Carp and pull out Bass - seems they don't last too long after trying to get the hook out.  Shouold I cut the barb on the hook to make it easier to release the Bass??? 

What they hay do I use for Carp bait?  Mikey.

[NONYA]

Dynomite

[Beers]

Grab a bowfishing rig, no bait required!

[Mikey]

Beers:  I was thinking along those lines myself.....................Thanks.  Mikey.

[HogFan]

Longknife,

  I live in a subdivision, and we have an upper and lower lake (ponds), and recently the game and fish shocked it, and said the upper lake is WAY over populated. I started keeping fish last year, when the father in-law and I caught 85 bream in a little over 1 hour. I went out today and caught 15 in 2 hours, but only 3 were keepers, so they all went back. I can only name a hand few of residents that actually keep the fish. Then it's mstly cats they keep. Also, the ponds are failry new, but a neighbor caught a  red ear just a few ounces shy of the state record last month from it.