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LMB EXPERIMENT Developing a new approach to
pond management
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Summary:
In the
fall of 2004, in Walden Pond, I began an experiment to help understand the
nature of LMB catchability and to develop new approaches to pond management
that breaks the cycle of dependency on chemicals and artificial
feeding.
The following is a summary of
the key aspects of that experiment:
1. Fall of
2004 the following were stocked:
a. 20 pounds
of fathead minnows
b. 200 CNBG and 200 RES (2 to 3
inches)
c. 30 mature CNBG
d. 2 grass carp
2. An existing very small
number of native BG and a large complement of Gambusia were already present in
the pond. No other fish were present as verified by inspection and thorough
seining of the small puddle of water from which the new pond was born.
3. In spring of 2005 the following were stocked: a. 50 F1 Tigre LMB b.
20 pounds of Mozambique Talipia.
4. No chemicals of any kind, no
artificial feeding of any kind, and no human intervention (at least to the
extent possible) has been permitted since beginning of experiment.
5.
In the fall of 2005, the first fishing was conducted…a 10 cast session
using a fly rod that netted 3 fish and had 6 other misses in 10 casts
representing an astounding 60% aggressiveness factor (this factor is determined
by counting the number of fish caught (10 points each) and the number of hits
(5 points each) during a 10 cast session). The F1 LMB is clearly an aggressive
fish.
 6. The spring of '06 has shown the continued success of
this experiment. All relative weights of the LMB sampled this spring are 1.1 to
1.4. Pictured to the right is a one-year-old F1 LMB from Walden with a 1.4
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