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| Last week I posted a question about stocking tigers. We did that along with some pure strains this week. Its a small, private, 44 acre lake. Full of panfish, bass, perch, etc. Does anyone have any experience with establishing other types of forage. I was considering golden shiners because fat heads are small and slow and will not take if there are any gamefish already present. Looking for advice from the pros with experience. Thanks for the help. Sorry, no pics from the stocking...there were supposed to be here at 2:00pm and did not show until 9:00pm. |
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Posts: 3147
| how big are you stocking tigers and continue to??? if larger then fingerlings Bullheads make big fat juicy treats,,thats what the first generation fish here in the Minneapolis metro got big on,,,however if you start stocking fingerlings the bullheads will gobble them up,,we had this experience with a rearing pond we stocked once |
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Posts: 1168
| Bullheads. Without a doubt bullheads. |
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | I was in WI at a buddies-buddies house adn he had two ponds full of brown trout and one with rainbow. HUGE fish and ripe for the eating by muskie! I always thoguht it would be cool to have a big lake for my pet muskies and then some feeder ponds full of trout that I would "feed" the big pond once in a while. Bass in CA are BIG due to the fatty fish (trout) they eat. Wonder what size a good old Mil Lacs musky would get to in a trout pond? |
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| Thanks guys. The tigers are 12-14" and the LL strain are around 9-10". I'm more concerned of them having something to eat when they are this size. Once they get larger, theres tons of crappies, bluegills, small bass, bullheads, and perch for them to eat. I'm assuming a bluegill or bass that hatched this spring would be too large for the LL strain fish to eat.... or maybe I'm wrong. |
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Posts: 4053
Location: Land of the Musky | Johnny-You can also get some good fish food in 50lb bags from your local feed store. They can order it for you. Bang a can in the water everyday and then chuck out a few 1 Gallon coffee cans of food. In about 1-2 weeks you will get them trained to come in. Really cool to see! I had my pond fish trained when I was a kid to come get dog food. The big catfish were fun to watch and the crappie looked neat all bunched up. In a lake that big it might be kind of hard to feed them though. Fun to find out! |
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| Tigers will eat the fish chow, but not naturals. Also, watch out for those bass eating your fingerlings...
I'd throw fatheads in there for now. Don't expext them to take. |
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Posts: 223
Location: Victoria,MN | While working PT for a wholesale bait distributor I had to take a load of fat heads (I don't remember how many gallons)to the MNDnr rearing ponds in southern Minnesota. It was quite a site to watch as I opened up the tank gates to release the minnows, it was total feeding frenzy. Pretty cool to watch.
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Posts: 2753
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | Sounds like fun, I wish I had a private 44 acre lake;-) With all the other species in the lake, I really wonder if you need to focus on forage? I'm no expert/pro by any means. But, I would think habitat would be my first priority/best investment to protect the original investment costs, i.e., those fingerlings. They need lots of cover to survive & grow. Reed beds, cattails, submergent weeds, cribs, submerged brush piles, old Cristmas trees, shoreline down falls, etc. With cover comes forage, as most forage species need cover also for sucessful recruitment.
If your lake aready has the necessary cover and a bio-diverse fish population, it probably already has the needed forage. When stocking them-I'd distribute them around the lake shore versus just dumping them in one spot- one spot they are more vulnerable to predation by both fish and birds as they try to disperse & find both cover and food......
Have fun!
Al |
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| Thanks for all the responses guys, I appreciate it! This lake has more structure than probably any lake I have ever fished, for its size anyways. Its the oldest strip mine in the area (early 20's I believe) and has good depth throughout. The entire shoreline has deadfalls and brush piles, really good weedlines and a stretch of shoreline with rocks the size of cars... I found a place in Arkansas that sells golden shiner fry for $250 per 250,000 fry which I plan to spend some bucks on this spring which should be good for all species. Thanks again. |
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Posts: 3240
Location: Racine, Wi | JL,
My parents live on a similar type of a lake, although smaller. They occasionally put in fatheads, but aside from that, the fish, even from their youth, have gotten big just feeding on what was available. It's amazing how big they can get in an environment like this. I like the golden shiner idea. I wonder how they'll do from a reproduction standpoint. I know the lake association by my parents are trying to find another food source to put in to take some pressure off the bass and gills. I personally think the fishery is fine, but what do I know. 
Good luck with this and keep us posted on how they develop. |
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