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As we enter the cooler season, recreation around lakes and ponds slows, but it doesn’t have to stop completely! Fall is the perfect time to get started with unique fishing activities AND take a closer look at your goals and maintenance needs for your fishery in the upcoming year.
Check out our top 4 articles highlighting everything to consider this fall in order to enhance your fishery for years to come!
Topics: Fisheries Management
Written by Dylan Kwak, Fisheries & Wildlife Scientist
Developing a thriving trophy fishery is no easy task. To be successful, you must consider the various factors that could restrict productivity and develop a plan to create the ideal environment for fish growth. Growing massive and healthy largemouth bass or tiger muskies can be achieved by considering these three facets for successful fisheries management:
Topics: Fisheries Management
Lake, stormwater pond, wetland and fisheries management is a complex field full of surprising puzzles and never-ending challenges. Effective management of our water resources depends on many different factors, making it critically important to understand the unique characteristics of your waterbody and identify how these elements can change over time. This is where data comes in. Modern tools and technologies have enabled freshwater management scientists to gain deeper insights into the unique physical, chemical and biological components in your waterbody and make more informed decisions about your management approach.
There are many different data gathering tools; some of the most widely-used are water quality assessments, bathymetric mapping and electrofishing. Your lake management professional may utilize some or all of these methods depending on your goals and budget. Each method provides vital information that simply cannot be determined with visual inspections.
Topics: Water Quality/Nutrient Remediation, Fisheries Management, Lake Mapping and Bathymetry
Written by Aaron Cushing, Wildlife and Fisheries Biologist, Environmental Scientist
As professionals in the lake and pond management industry, we view ourselves as the caretakers of our freshwater resources. As such, we continually seek ways to improve and create Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs that preserve those valuable ecosystems. If an improvement can be made to an IPM that is beneficial to the environment and can possibly save pond owners money, we view it as a win-win for all. One such improvement is the use of Grass Carp to help manage nuisance vegetation in lakes and ponds.
A voracious plant-eating fish native to Asia, Grass Carp were originally imported to the United States in the early 1960s to serve as a “biological control” option for nuisance aquatic vegetation. Unfortunately, as a non-native species without natural predators, they also had the ability to reproduce quickly, posing a substantial risk to the environment. In the 1980s, researchers developed a process to create a sterile triploid fish that cannot reproduce and establish undesired populations. Currently, commercial hatcheries propagate Triploid Grass Carp for stocking in many states across the country.
Topics: Aquatic Weeds and Algae, Fisheries Management, Fisheries Projects
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Written by Paul Dorsett, Fisheries Biologist
When asked to choose my favorite species of fish, Threadfin Shad is always the first thing that comes to mind. Threadfin Shad play an incredible role in many fisheries as a prolific prey species and their high fecundity (ability to produce lots of offspring) makes them an especially attractive option for stocking. Not only do they occupy a unique ecological niche, they can also provide an exciting angling experience by altering the behavior of predators.
Threadfin Shad are primarily pelagic, meaning they inhabit the open water, rather than the areas near the bottom or the shoreline. They travel throughout their environment in large schools—almost like a single organism—with rhythmic movements reminiscent of flocking birds. When pursued by predators, they will “pop” along the surface and easily lose bright silver, golden or blue-green scales into the water column, which causes further confusion to their pursuers, which include Hybrid Striped Bass, Largemouth Bass and Crappie.
Topics: Fisheries Management
Written by Logan Cowan, Wildlife and Fisheries Biologist
Throughout the country, small ponds serve a variety of uses in our communities. Biologists help manage ponds for aesthetics, recreation, and stormwater collection—as well as for trophy fishing. Establishing a trophy fishery can be a complex endeavor that requires many tools and strategies to support the goals of the property owner. Supplemental feeding is one of these important tools, which is often essential to establish and maintain a productive fishery. However, the success of a supplemental fish feeding plan can depend on a variety of factors. Before implementing a fish feeding program, it’s important to confer with a professional Fisheries Biologist about the expected benefits and potential undesirable impacts.
Supplemental feeding with a high-quality pelleted fish food is a cost-effective technique to increase forage production. Feeding forage such as Bluegill and Golden Shiners can improve Largemouth Bass growth and condition. Depending on the unique goals and characteristics of the fishery, managers may also opt to feed Largemouth Bass and Hybrid Striped Bass instead of the forage base. No matter the approach, automatic fish feeders can be highly effective at providing consistent feed and attracting sportfish, including catfish and Rainbow Trout, to specific locations for improved catch rates.
Topics: Fisheries Management
Written by Dylan Kwak, Wildlife and Fisheries Scientist
Unlike management of deer or bird populations, which are visually observed, collecting fisheries data requires methods designed specifically for aquatic habitats. Fisheries Biologists use a variety of sampling techniques to overcome the difficulty associated with properly assessing fish populations. Common sampling tools include gill nets, traps, angling and electrofishing. Electrofishing is one of the most common and successful techniques for sampling fish in shallow water.
Electrofishing offers many benefits that other sampling techniques do not. Gill nets and traps, for example, reduce the slime coat of fish, making fish more susceptible to parasites and diseases. Due to the passive nature of other sampling techniques, fish commonly trapped in the nets do not survive. Furthermore, angling and nets tends to target specific size and/or species of fish. Electrofishing, on the other hand, can capture all species of fish that are accessible in the water.
Topics: Fisheries Management
That's a wrap! What a year it has been. In honor of the new year, we gathered all of our educational articles and picked the top 10 most-viewed of 2019. Read our most popular articles covering toxic algae, aquatic weed control, fisheries and wildlife management and new innovations and technologies.
Topics: Water Quality/Nutrient Remediation, Aquatic Weeds and Algae, Fisheries Management, Pond Management Best Practices, Published Articles
AS SEEN IN Pond Boss: Written by Fisheries Biologist David Beasley
One of the most amazing attributes of water is its ability to provide people with a sense of happiness. Regardless of upbringing, nearly all of us have something to gain in life by having access to a recreational lake or pond. Some people find enjoyment being surrounded by crystal clear water—the type of environment that entices people of all ages to jump in. Others find greater happiness with fertile, emerald water teeming with life as they spend hours trying to outsmart and entice hearty fish thriving beneath the surface. Likewise, there are some people who have a passion for waterbodies choked out with invasive vegetation, attracting a wide range of waterfowl with an all you can eat buffet.
Although lakes and ponds have a variety of water uses, each waterbody has natural characteristics and water quality that determine its clarity, vegetation coverage, productivity, and a plethora of biological and chemical influences. Water quality is a primary factor that determines how much effort it will take to transform and maintain the waterbody to meet your goals. As a result, a strategic plan for monitoring and manipulating water quality should be at the center of nearly all aquatic management strategies.
After all, water is the medium. If your water isn’t healthy, your pond can’t be, either. If your waterbody is not meeting your aesthetic or recreational needs, it is fair to say that altering the water chemistry will likely increase the chances of success.
Topics: Water Quality/Nutrient Remediation, Fisheries Management, Fisheries Projects, Published Articles
Written by Industry Expert Ben German, Fisheries Biologist
Collecting data on fish populations, which are inherently difficult to directly observe, has always presented a unique challenge to fisheries biologists. To combat this issue, a subset of the fish population is sampled (collected) and used to draw conclusions about the larger population in the water body. Many techniques to accomplish this fish collection have evolved over time with several ancient technologies like nets, weirs, traps, and lines still in use today. More recently, in the mid-20th century, biologists began exploring electrofishing surveys as a viable means to capture fish.
When performed by a trained professional, electrofishing is a safe and efficient survey method that allows biologists to obtain a complete picture of the fishery and accurately calculate important metrics. This data, evaluated in conjunction with water quality assessments, fish habitat, and stakeholder goals, provides fisheries biologists with the information needed to develop customized fisheries management plans.
Topics: Fisheries Management, Fisheries Projects
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