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.

 

[MMagis]

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

You may be right. Bullheads will spawn.

 

[lapdawg]

I suspect you'll need to eliminate the bullhead prior to restocking the others, depending on their relative sizes. If the bullhead are larger, they'll prey on the bluegill and bass. You will likely need to treat with rotenone before restocking.

 

[SPIKER]

I suspect you'll need to eliminate the bullhead prior to restocking the others, depending on their relative sizes. If the bullhead are larger, they'll prey on the bluegill and bass. You will likely need to treat with rotenone before restocking.

Bull head are not that aggressive but they are hard to get rid off. If the pnd is in a flood plane I would not worry about attempting to get rid of them they will be baack. get a couple large mouth bass & toss them in there ASAP to get rid of the little ones. Net will help if they are still schooling in a ball easy to get a bunch of them also note frod tad poles often school like this when small.

mark

 

[MMagis]

Bullhead don't really get large enough to prey on bass, and can eat only baby bluegill, which is a good thing. Spiker is right, if they got in there once from flooding, they'll get in there again.

 

[jonyyuma]

I put 150 hybred bluegill into my pond several years ago.I have yet to catch one of the dark suckers. I suspect the "Protected" huge Blue Heron crane has had a few for diet.I already had a lot of common bream in the pond too.We do catch blue catfish.

 

[TigerfaninAR]

Went out last night and caught a couple of the catfish. However we caught a couple of these guys for the first time. So at least not all of the fish are of the whiskered variety.

Neighbor wants all my little cats so probably won't make a big dent but I'll be transplanting all I can to their pond.

 

[jonyyuma]

Nice bream, they can get large, but not a pound. red-ear,, sun perch, goggle-eye?