Thoughts on Private Fishing Lakes?

"All species of fish stocked for ponds will reproduce till they die" Tilling is something that is done to prepare land for farming.

It's not uncommon for only 10-20% of sturgeon(a species of fish stocked in ponds to reproduce)FYI

I've got a 3.5 acre pond on my property that has LM Bass, Sunfish-Bluegill and Red Ear Sunfish, Channel Catfish, a few Chain & Redfin/Grass Pickeral, and some gar. I've been fertilizing and lining it every year for 20+ years. No one fishes it unless they are with me. I feed the fish floating pellets in the warmer months after I start fertilizing it at 65℉. I have some teener bass in it(12lbs15oz. or larger, as in 13lbs+)that me,my wife and a couple of good friends have caught before. I eat fish out of it all the time. My rule is eat 10lbs of Sunfish for about 1lb. of Bass. Seems to work well. Everything has stayed in a good ratio for a long time. I have nothing against a pay lake. I've never heard anything about someone catching up wild fish and stocking pond or lakes with them. Everyone down south buys them from private fish breeders and stocks the fish at a small size. I only know of a few places that stock larger size fish. Also, the state game and fish will stock your pond for free down here. Here's a picture of my wife with a LM Bass that's 25.5" long and weighs 10.27 lbs. that she caught last fall on an 8" chartreuse plastic lizard Texas rigged so it's weedless. Pretty good fish for a sissy girl, huh!!!?

I see one problem with the idea. Having non native fish that can tolerate cold water is a call for disaster. All you need is one large rain fall and those fish could end up in a different lake/pond. Even if it's far away. Try to stick it with native fish that can be caught in near by lakes/ponds/rivers/etc.


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divemaster99 said:

Again, i have no problems with responsibly maintained ponds like that. I just hate when pay lake owners wild catch the rare monsters for their pond(s).

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So you're implying people are going out and catching full grown specimen and having them flown/mail delivered to their lakes, one at a time?


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divemaster99 said:

Not implying, I know. There was an article on nanfa about this a few weeks ago where commerical fishermen were targeting bigger fish than usual to sell to pay lakes.

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Is it safe to say you're against targeting large specimen period, not necessarily pay lakes?

Would these commercial fishermen using large nets have even released these large specimen anyways?





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We don't do anything with ours and it isn't too bad visibility wise.


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Adding aquatic vegetation will improve visibility and water quality.