Where did the catfish come from?

[TigerfaninAR]

Built a small pond last year, about 1/3 of an acre. Put a couple pounds of fathead minnows in with plan to stock this spring with a few bass and bluegill. Waited too late and now have an order for early fall. In the meantime last week saw a snake with a catfish taking it to shore for some supper. First I've seen of any fish because I haven't put any in. Got a few worms and caught 5 within 10 minutes, all about hand size. Worries what these catfish will do to my little bass/bluegill come fall.

Only thing I can think is when we had some minor flooding and the catfish got into the pond that way.

 

[acme97]

Here is a fairly straight forward answer. How Do Fish Get Into New Ponds? | eHow.com Most likely, from birds, or any animals that may have tracked roe. Of course if you did get the flooding, that would be the most probable.

 

[Aggieville]

Flooding. Depending on how near other bodies are to this pond, it doesn't take a lot of water on the ground for fish to "migrate" - it's really weird.

 

[Soundguy]

any underground springs?

soundguy

 

[MMagis]

If your pond flooded, that would be the most likely cause. The other causes are possible, but not nearly as likely as the flooding. I wouldn't worry about them too much, channel cats in ponds are quite common. They seldom spawn.

 

[clemsonfor]

I was going to say cticking to birds legs.

 

[TigerfaninAR]

If your pond flooded, that would be the most likely cause. The other causes are possible, but not nearly as likely as the flooding. I wouldn't worry about them too much, channel cats in ponds are quite common. They seldom spawn.

I think I have bullhead catfish. I've got at least 7 swarms of baby catfish going along the bank.

 

[SPIKER]

I think I have bullhead catfish. I've got at least 7 swarms of baby catfish going along the bank.

sounds like bull heads aka yellow bellies to me. could have had one or two stocked with the flat head minnows and or the flooding most likely. One they are good eating, they will however cloudy up the water from foraging on the bottom.

Mark

 

[jinman]

Oooh. . . walking catfish.:cool2:

 

[Crow4x4]

I put in a small pond myself had a bunch of geese and ducks in it the next day,2 months later i had bullheads feeding of the top of the water. I was told the geese had fish eggs on their feather , I dont know about this but I did not put them there, but it does sound good.