Clearing a Dam for Bass

[lazy-ike]

howzat guys.
know this auntie who's got 2 dams. one with karp barbel and kurper and the other with florida bass which also contains barbel carp and kurper. fishing is real slow there unless you wanna catch carp or barbel. i've caught 12 bass there this year but all of them 1kgs plus and one of 2.5kg. how can i get rid of those pesky barbel and carp? don't wanna kill the bass though.

[mumro]

hi friend
dont get rid of the carp and barbel...they will balance everything try stocking more bass and kurper if you can get :wink:

[Fab]

Join the hook and cook brigade!?!?!?!?! :roll: :? 8O

:twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

[lazy-ike]

was thinking of taking a goof with a speargun :twisted:

[Guest]

Hi guys

Managing a pond stocked with both barbel and carp already stocked in the dam becomes a tedious affair. I'm not sure increasing the dam's bass and kurper population will be the best solution, to grow and maintain reasonable fish populations you need to calculate the balance between predatory fish and fodder fish. Further stocking of either into such a dam will only be a temporary solution.

You can always try drag netting, a time consuming and costly affair or electroshocking the fish, but both of these techniques require a great deal of know how. Electroshocking only works on larger fish species, periodically stunning the fish so you can remove them.

Here's a few links to find out a little more on pond management and stocking.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.suttlefish.com/trophy_bass.html">http://www.suttlefish.com/trophy_bass.html</a><!-- m -->
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.sepond.com/">http://www.sepond.com/</a><!-- m -->

[lazy-ike]

thanks for those sites D-money, real helpful. i think the best thing to do would be to net it, or have a 100 rods in the water for a weekend. have to sweet talk that auntie so she can give me exclusive access to those dams.

[Shannon]

Hi Lazy-Ike
To improve the fishing in these dams, you will probably have to decrease the population of carp and barbel. Carp eat all the Bass eggs during spawn and the barbel eat all the fingerlings and if the barbel are a fair size they will also eat all the smaller bass. Barbel are excellent night time hunters but I have seen them hunting in big schools during the day as well. When you find a school of barbel at Inanda, you won't find a single bass in that area. Barbel also compete against bass for the same food.
Drag netting is going to be your best bet, but don't remove all of the carp and barbel, only the larger ones that a bass can't eat. The bass will then keep a balance on the amount of fish in the dams and will flourish themselves.

One other thing, is there enough cover in the dam for small bass to hide away, otherwise their bigger sisters are going to eat them anyway.

[lazy-ike]

there's a lot of cover in the dam lotsa rocks and vegetation. the dam is aprox 7m deep. where can i get one of those nets?

[robdog]

I don't know about a net but I know where you can get volunteer rods 8)