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However, because of their diversity, it is difficult to make
blanket management recommendations that will improve
Need Help? fishing in all ponds.
The best combination of species for most fishing ponds
For help with your pond, … is largemouth bass and bluegill. Bass are about the only
call the Wildlife Department’s predator that can eat enough of the young bluegill pro-
Fisheries Division, duced each year, and bluegill are about the only prey that
(405) 521-3721, for a referral can supply enough small fish for bass to eat. Both fish are
to a specialist near you. fun to catch and good to eat. This bass-bluegill combina-
tion often is supplemented with other desirable fish such
as channel catfish, hybrid sunfish and redear sunfish.
Ponds need to be about a half-acre or larger if you want
to fish for bass and sunfish. As a general rule, smaller
ponds just cannot produce sustained good fishing for
these species. Water levels should be fairly constant
throughout the year. Some fluctuation is acceptable, but
a pond that floods or goes dry obviously cannot be man-
aged with any degree of confidence. The pond should not
be extremely muddy or have excessive vegetation.
Pond owners should check with an ODWC fisheries
biologist or other qualified person before initiating any
pond management activity.
Fish Population Assessment
To manage a pond for producing sustained good fish-
ing, you need to know two things: the current make-up
of the fish population and how you would like it changed.
There are two main ways to check the status of a pond’s
fish population: by seining the shoreline in early summer
and by monitoring what is being caught by anglers. Sev-
eral hauls along the shoreline with a 4-foot-deep, 15-foot
minnow seine having six to eight mesh per inch will indi-
cate the ratio of bass to bluegill in a pond. A typical seine
haul should contain several fry and fewer intermediate
sized bluegill (2 to 3 inches) and a few bass fingerlings (1
to 3 inches).
Now, let’s turn our attention to the use of angling re-
sults for fish population assessment. To effectively man-
age a pond for good fishing, you should keep a record of
fish caught from the pond including the time it took to
catch each one and the size and body condition of each.
Other observations about the pond such as water color,
aquatic plants, etc., also can be helpful.
For these records to be most useful, anglers should
fish fairly regularly during the year and use a variety of
lures and baits to seek different types and sizes of fish.
For example, bass lures, worms, crickets, crappie jigs and
doughbaits might all be used at various times throughout
the year.
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