Lake Management
Cuba Farm May 2016 Electrofishing Summary:
General information
We looked for signs of the crawfish stocking by setting traps in West Minnow, Pretty, and Cloudy. We did catch a crawfish in Cloudy and in twenty four hours had 87 in the trap at Pretty. We had crawfish spit up in the tanks from West Minnow and Cloudy. We stocked 450 lbs for cloudy 200lbs for pretty and 900 lbs for west minnow. It appears the white river species performs well in your lakes. I suggest a truckload coming up next spring to stock in the wetlands being built.
Wetland and Brood Ponds
Ok we have to get on a program to decide brood pond stockings sooner in the year. We missed crawfish this year but like to have those in the wetlands next year and probably try poly culture in a few of these wetlands. For this year brood ponds I think the best bet is hybrid bluegill in one and gold fish of two diff sizes in other two. I may have done all three in hybrid bluegill but they are only available as large 4-5
inch so not as big a benefit as if starting out at the 2-3 inch size. Brood Pond 1- 1500 large hybrid bluegill- $1050
Brood Pond 2- 100 lbs-2-4 inch $725
Brood Pond 3- 100 lbs- 4.5- 7 inch- $725
Wetland by big lake- 25 lbs goldfish and 25 lbs shiners Wetland by West Minnow- 50 lbs goldfish 4.5 -7 inch Wetland by Cloudy- 50 lbs goldfish 2- 4inch
Wetland by cloudy- 25 lbs shiners and 25 lbs goldfish
Wetland by South- 50 lbs shiners
The wetland stocking is based on ponds being 0.1 acres in size. If larger we can increase density or see how things go this year. You will likely have predator issues in these wetland ponds so be aware.
Fertilization
The fertilization spreadsheet was filled out by Ryan and we need to monitor more often if possible. It was checked 4 times last year and we need to check/apply 6 times mid May-mid Sept. East had little reaction. West got really green in August. South cycled and I think produces many more fish because of this. Both South and West Minnow produced more bluegill due this fertility level.
Gizzard Shad
We saw the shad in West Minnow, Pretty and South. They are in East because one was regurgitated from a bass. We moved over 50 big gizzards from West to East. Fertility will aid in gizzard shad production.
Tagging
We tagged lots of bass this trip. We only had one recapture. The tag list has been modified. The bass in Big Beaver had not grown much one inch and 0.3 lbs in two years. We look forward to future data from these fish.
Harvest
I think instructions are being followed better minus Sammy. The big change this year is monitoring the harvest and efforts for harvest on west Minnow. I want to see if we track this harvest and hit our goals how the bass respond. I think gate has better growth due to limit numbers of bass. I want to repeat that on West Minnow with intensive bass harvest there. I
left the following comments in from last year... We need to really make an effort to limit harvest especially in North Clubhouse and Big Beaver. We can harvest aggressively in the trophy bass lakes.
Aeration
All systems are running well. I am shipping lots of filters so they can be changed at least twice a year for all compressors. Ryan has done a good job of keeping the units cleaned out.
Musky stocking
None this year on the list. For your records this was the tiger musky stocking for two stockings last year. They were 10-14 inches when stocked.
Big Beaver- 112East-40South-30WestMinnow-35Gate- 20Pretty- 100 pure musky
Age of Largemouth Bass
|
Lake |
Length (in.) |
Weight (lbs.) |
Wr (%) |
Age (yrs.) |
|
Gate |
17 |
2.4 |
90 |
10 (spawn 2006) |
|
Clubhouse |
17 |
2.1 |
76 |
12 |
|
Big Beaver |
9.5 |
0.4 |
103 |
3 |
|
" |
10.5 |
0.7 |
113 |
3 |
|
" |
13 |
1.0 |
89 |
5 |
|
" |
16.5 |
2.1 |
83 |
9 |
|
" |
17.5 |
2.6 |
85 |
13 |
Big Beaver ages shown in order minus the one where otolith was not useable. The bass are very slow growing. Next year I want to age some bass in south and west minnow and see if the fertility results in faster growth in younger bass. Your Dad asked how old the 10 inch bass was and in your lakes that means three year old to make it to ten inches. When you have bass that are under the Wr that means they lost weight since growing to a longer length.
Big Beaver
Quality fishing for crappie, bass, musky, northern pike
Results: I think the slow increase in better bass fishing and better quality crappie continues. The catches of musky and northern continues to improve. Water milfoil and curly leaf and now filamentous algae continues to worsen every year. The wood cover continues to hold bass especially those in 10- 15 feet of depth near drop offs to deeper water.
Recommendations:
• Vegetation- You have approved the stocking of 680 grass carp based on 34 acres of vegetation. You can also target treatments for filamentous algae.
• Harvest needs to be limited to just you and target 85% or less Wr. No harvest otherwise from fisherman so there are more to catch. Musky and Northern might limit the populations as well as they continue to mature.
• We did not shock any of the tiger musky recently stocked. Glad to see you have caught some but let's hold off on further stocking to ensure good growth rates.
• If we have another drought as predicted install more spawning beds. They have been very successful with bluegill and red ear preferring them over other spawning grounds.
West Minnow
Trophy Bass and Musky
Results: Bluegill population continues to increase. I predict good bass growth this year. The bass numbers remain higher than we want for excellent growth so we are recommending more bass harvest. We removed about 50 bass during the survey. The large gizzard shad should reproduce this spring if they haven't yet.
Recommendations:
• We removed 50 gizzard shad and you have seen schools of smaller shad.
• Keep up the fertilization regime via a spreadsheet. Apply more regularly and hopefully time allows for closer monitoring.
• We did see a couple of crawfish spit up in the fish tank although we did not catch any in traps. Next year let's get on the spring stocking early for these.
• Harvest All Bass under 100Wr up to 300 more. Please monitor the removal.
• Fisherman take all bass under 14 inches
• Forage addition, 450 lbs goldfish
• 240 grass carp being stocked
East
Trophy Bass and Musky
Results: The common carp have taken a strong hold since the lower bass density and the flooding of the phragmites. We removed 50 so we may have put in a dent. I'm looking into possible rotenone applications when they are in the flooded vegetation.
Recommendations:
• We stocked more gizzard shad from west minnow.
• Kill as many common carp as possible. Get some bow fishing gear to use.
• Harvest bass under 100 percent Wr
• Fisherman harvest all bass under 14 inches
• Stock goldfish as an additional forage, 300 lbs
• 100 grass carp being stocked
• We have modified the fertilization regime to 6 boxes when > 6 foot and 3 boxes when 3-6 feet visibility. Continue to monitor.
• Let me know how the musky fishing progresses here.
North Clubhouse Lake
Easy fishing for numbers of multiple species including hybrid striped bass.
Results: CPUE was more even in north and clubhouse this year. Crappie population remains stable. Vegetation worse than ever for a spring visit.
Recommendations:
• No harvest of fish in this lake unless insisted by guest.
• No harvest of bluegill. Promote the hybrid bluegill population. Feeders should increase the "bream" size.
• Grass carp stocking is 220 and I suggest monitoring or shooting into the grass carp to keep them off feeders. DO NOT remove them yet.
• Remove catfish since they are eating fish food.
• We shocked just a few but saw two large schools of hybrid bass by the feeders. Again critical to keep feeders up for them. I have lots of clients that have feeder and have hybrids and catch them. Turn the feeders off for a period if you like. Some just like seeing the hybrids explode on feed. I think we need to give them some time and removing feeders is a quick reaction to seeing something at neighbor lake.
• Hybrid bluegill stocking from brood pond of 1500 plus direct stocking of 2000 more will be an density of 200/acre. This should create an excellent fishery for these but they too will depend on the feeders to get exceptional size.
Gate Lake
Trophy Bass and Musky
Results: The number of bass remains low but the quality remains high. The water level has never been higher. Conductivity again made it difficult to shock. As with other lakes the milfoil is getting worse. The bass caught this spring are a result of lower bass numbers thus improved growth.
Recommendations:
• In the past we debated about smallmouth here as well as walleye due to depth. I think for convenience sake the smallmouth were added to west minnow from cloudy. I think it better to add them here? What are your thoughts?
• Harvest all Bass regardless of size. Better quality bass can be stocked in East or West Minnow. Release smallmouth.
• Musky fishing remains good here as well as quality bass.
• Stocking 100 grass carp
• Stock 300 lbs goldfish
South Lake
Quality Bass and Quality Bluegill
Results:
While the fishing has been slow the bass continue to improve. The bluegill population remains strong. This is a sign of great fertility. The vegetation remains the big issue. We missed our big musky we have shocked the last two years. We saw several schools of gizzard shad in the preferred size.
Recommendations:
• We changed fertilization to 3 boxes down from 4 when visibility is over 6 foot and 2 boxes for 3-6 feet. We have changed this based on results seen from Ryan's fertilizer spreadsheet.Pretty Lake
• Stock 240 grass carp
• Stock 400 lbs of goldfish.
• Harvest bass as desired and leave most bluegill
Musky Brood Pond
Results: The lake was teaming with baby shiners and we did see the musky but little growth as taken place as of yet. Also the crawfish population has exploded. One fat bass was shocked up and removed to West Minnow.
Recommendations:
• The crawfish should takeoff with no predators.
• Use traps to catch them out as needed.
• No fishing on this lake until at least 2017
• You wanted to consider walleye here but I think we need to let the musky have at the forage base with no competition for now. The one bass was concerning but was removed.
• I think to push the musky add goldifsh here as well, 250 lbs
• No grass carp needed here
Cloudy Lake
Walleye, Yellow Perch, Smallmouth
Results: The golden shiners numbers are down. We did not catch a bigger smallmouth but we did miss several due to the clear water. The green sunfish population has increased dramatically. Also the vegetation has exploded here as well.
Recommendations:
• We did catch one crawfish in the trap but we had one spit up in the tank as well. Stock more next spring.
• The golden shiner population has not increased as I had hoped. Again lets try goldfish here. 250 lbs.
• Stock 60 grass carp.
• Let's not take any more smallmouth out of the lake for now. Let's see how the ones transferred to west minnow did but I prefer to try some in Gate lake.
• Feel free to transfer any caught green sunfish to North Clubhouse.
2016 Stocking:
Goldfish stocking- up to 1950 lbs. at $7.25/lb plus delivery fee. $2/lb less than shiners. I'm trying to boost growth rates. If you wish to see how goldfish do this year in the wetlands let's just do some in pretty and some in west minnow. We also have you down for hybrid bluegill I need to know about so I can get them scheduled.
Delivery fee from big hatchery truck is $3000 and with our fish truck $1650 to Cuba but might can split this fee. They can haul up 1800-2300 lbs of forage fish. We can haul up to 700 lbs.
Grass carp >10 inch approved for 1640 at reduced fee of $10.75 delivered. Permit fee is included in the cost. Total $17,630.
Cuba Farm Lake Regulations
| Lake | Goal | Harvest Plan | Pro Fisherman |
|
Pretty |
Muskie |
No Fishing |
No fishing |
|
West Minnow |
Trophy Bass Musky |
300 <16" LMB |
<100Wr |
|
Big Beaver |
Multiple Species |
Catch & Release |
<85Wr |
|
East |
Trophy Bass Musky |
<14" LMB |
<100Wr |
|
Gate |
Musky Trophy Largemouth Bass |
Harvest All <16" LMB |
All LMB |
|
South |
Quality Bass Quality Bluegill |
Limited harvest <14" LMB |
<100Wr |
|
North Clubhouse |
Easy Fishing Hybrid Striped Bass |
Catch & Release Keep up 1,000 Bluegill |
<70Wr |
|
Cloudy |
Walleye Yellow Perch Smallmouth Bass |
Catch & Release |
Catch & Release |
