Pond over stocked with dinks

[LarryClutch]

I have a pond I just received permission to fish. Ice fished it today. Caught a ton of dink pan fish and a couple nice ones. What are people's thoughts on thinning the small ones to give room to the larger ones. Ratio was about 100 dinks per 1 - 7 inch blue full. And 50 dink crappies to  1 - 10 incher. Pond is 2-3 acres. 12' deep. Also caught a 15 inch bass. No one has fished it in 5 years or so. Opinions and thoughts are welcomed!!!  Thanks.

[MattyP123]

A larger bait/lure is a good way to discourage smaller fish

[esox_magnum]

Thin the herd....I would keep anything under 8" throw the big ones back for genetics...Get some friends and have a big fish fry...

[lannino]

dinks mean bigger predators...let em be if you arent going to eat them

[LarryClutch]

I filleted quite a few 5 inch blue gills. Not much meat. But you do 60+ and that's a lot of fish tacos.  I'll see what this thining does. I only keep fish in the winter so hopefully this summer I can see them getting bigger.

[esox_magnum]

It wont be instant it will take a couple seasons to start seeing a size improvement....

[kylerprochaska]

I would talk to the owner of the pond to see what they say...

[indybogger]

I'd be curious to see how thinning works out I have a farm pond I fish that's the same way but I do know there are some nice cats and largemouth in it catch a few of them from time to time but never keep them.

[Kevin23]

Do you have permission to "fix" it or just fish it?

I'd start filling buckets with the smallest ones and let the 6"+ bluegill and 8"+ crappie go. Dump them in a pile along the shoreline for the coons. Come spring/summer put in some more bass and some catfish.

[ULking]

Do you have permission to "fix" it or just fish it?

I'd start filling buckets with the smallest ones and let the 6"+ bluegill and 8"+ crappie go. Dump them in a pile along the shoreline for the coons. Come spring/summer put in some more bass and some catfish.

Exactly what I'd do!! Did the same thing a few times to a very small pond I fish and in 2-3yrs got much better size and quality gills....starting to do it on a crappie pond that I didn't fish for a few years but 10"  crappie are all you catch used to get 14"+

[LarryClutch]

Do you have permission to "fix" it or just fish it?

I'd start filling buckets with the smallest ones and let the 6"+ bluegill and 8"+ crappie go. Dump them in a pile along the shoreline for the coons. Come spring/summer put in some more bass and some catfish.

I have permission to do as I wish.  I will try thinning it this year and see how she does the next couple years.

[Osage]

We had a pond overrun with fish,we let anyone fish the pond providing they took everything under a certain size.It took several years and many coolers of fish to bring it back.The other option was draining and starting over,Bluegills can spawn several times a year,some every full moon though not as heavy as the late spring spawn.Adding predator fish works,but it is difficult to get the ratio correct if the gills have a huge lead on them.Several years after we started managing our pond,we sold the land.The new owner wanted the pond drained,it was amazing to see how well the population had evened out.We had huge gills,a nice ratio of bass and catfish.......dang I wish dad would have kept that pond

[Cotacatchers]

Clutch I'm with ESOX.  Thin the heard.  I very been fishing a pond south of cb for over 20 yrs and back then we ALL ( including owner) started taking buckets of dinks out , only to thin heard ! , now we got a sweet fishery    Huge gill s , huge crappie .   So if you have permission start thinning .... 
 

[nocod]

you have to take the small ones,when too many are the same size it hurts the entire fishery.

[FishGut]

First, talk to the owner. Then talk to the Iowa DNR. If they've got half the resources of the Nebraska NGPC, they will have people that can come out and assess the pond, and give you the proper way to manage the pond for your goals. There are lots of online guides put out by various governmental and private agencies that will help guide you. But remember that the first rule of good fishing is HABITAT.

Here is a link to the Nebraska Game and Parks Pond Management Guide series. http://outdoornebraska.ne.gov/fishing/guides/pondguide/ Everything should be generally applicable to Iowa ponds too

[coldhand]

eat the bass

[DAPOS]

Some years ago, I received a "Farm Pond Mgmnt. Plan" booklet from a southern university.....sorry, I don't remember which one, but I'm sure some time on google will help. It was via an extension program, and was very very thorough, not just telling you what to do, but why you want to be doing it. If I were you, I'd do my best to find that info. and then you won't have be trying shotgun approaches, and you'll have a trophy panny pond in no time. I WISH I were you......I'd love to have a pond like that!!!!

[Crappielover89]

jig a foot or two above the school and it will draw mostly the bigger ones up to it..... also a little bit of thinning the heard by eating or killing the smaller fish..... or maybe even putting a predator in there to eat the small ones...

[ducksnbucks36]

Either thin it throw back larger gills and keep drinks for coon bait or go catch more predatory fish in the summer and put them in

[buck05]

We had the same problem at our pond after about 3 years of throwing any smaller than your hand up on the bank it seems that we have started catching nicer ones. We don't keep any nice ones in the summer all the ones as big as your hand we put back.  In the winter we keep some through the ice. If u pile the little ones on the ice the make good coyote bait.   

[icefishman]

U need to keep all the dinks like every bodies saying I've personally watched this work. I know these two old fellas who built a lake back up they were keeping 50 fish every other day in June and July this one summer it's been three yrs now and all we catch is 7-10"ers

[tomturkey]

We had a real bad die off of pike in our big 350 acre private lake back in 2011. Needless to say we now are over run with dink gills.

I have started to cull out a lot of the dinks. I clean alot of the smaller ones. It is like eating pop corn schrimp when I fry them up but better than letting them go to waste.

When you talk about just throwing the dinks out for the critters be mind full of other people finding them and getting a bad impression of fishermen in general not knowing the truth of why it is being done.

[hogan]

eat the bass

   
                  Just because you are new here it doesn't mean you have to post nonsense responses to raise your post amount.

[rdhammah]

rather than fileting the small ones, why not skin them and fry them. eat them off the bones.

[JerryofWNY]

From a pond management site:

A good rule of thumb for maintaining balanced bass/bluegill populations is to remove at least 4 to 5 pounds of bluegill for each pound of bass removed. Keep all bluegill caught. Most over-population problems are caused by small bluegill, and returning them only adds to the problem.

[LarryClutch]

I wish I had some pond to put them in. They are 2-3 inches.

[VanderLaan]

From a pond management site:

A good rule of thumb for maintaining balanced bass/bluegill populations is to remove at least 4 to 5 pounds of bluegill for each pound of bass removed. Keep all bluegill caught. Most over-population problems are caused by small bluegill, and returning them only adds to the problem.

You think so?  This is probably good approach for a pond that is in equilibrium, but the OP's pond sounds way out of whack.  Not sure I would keep all bluegill caught either.  There are studies that indicate that keeping the big gills in a pond results in an overall decrease in the size of gills in the pond.  Best to let the predators eat the little gills and selectively harvest the big ones.

Like many have said, you need to get rid of the little gills, either by catching them, seining them or introducing predators to eat them.  You should also figure out what your goal is long-term and start managing the pond with that in mind (big bass or big gills).  I would discuss it with the owner and see if you can come to an agreement. Perhaps they would be willing to pay for some cats or bass.  I buy my cats from the local SWCD and the prices are reasonable.  Once your pond is in balance, you should only need to add cats on a semi-annual basis.  Most biologist would caution you to not add fish from another pond or lake.  Introduce disease and you will have bigger problems than little gills.  Once things are more balanced, start weighing and measuring your fish and manage your pond accordingly.

I manage my pond for gills and keep every bass over 12''.   I also stock 8'' channel cats every other year.  Most people do not realize that channel cats will eat a lot of small fish.  This results in a lot of small bass that eat every gill under 5'' and leave every gill over 5'' alone to grow.  After four years of following this approach, it is no big deal to catch gills that are in the 9-10'' range.  The big cats are a bonus. 

All thst said, I would keep all the little gills I catch, release all the bass, add some 8'' channel cats and be patient.

[major257]

stock a hybrid predator so they won't breed and you know their population