Catfish Pond

[traindriver]

Am converting a farm pond over to a catfish pond. Would like to figure out a way to harvest the catfish without too much trouble. Any suggestions?

[on_the_fly]

find who your local pay lake buys the fish they get for stocking or just see if they up their order for you and buy from them. other than that plan on some fisshing trips. thats how i stocked mine.

[hunt NH]

i dont know if catfish are stocked. but if they are i agree that would be the easyest way to do it. if you cant buy them there are other ways. the catch somewere elce and reliece in your pond will help. another way i can think of is. when i was a kid i remember swimming in newfound lake hear in NH. in the summers i would se black spots one the bottom of the lake in about 3 ft of water. when i stuck my head under i would find that the black spots were a small swarm of hundereds of baby cat fish. smaller than tad polls all together. at this point i could turn over rocks in our jettys and find and catch them there by the dozens. mabee you could use that way to catch tons of them for your pond.

[traindriver]

Thanks for the ideas. Turns out several of the local "pay" ponds get them through the Co-op each year. Think I'll go the easy route instead of trying to catch my own. My eye-hand coordination ain't what it used to be.

[on_the_fly]

if you want fingeling size to add and not grown fish. around here our local southern states takes fish orders and have a truck that comes once a year in the spring. real cheap and you just have to bring a cooler or something on their delivery date to pack fish home in. might be an option in your area too,

[tator]

Check with your department of conservation in your state. My father-in-law just had a pond (that used to be a farm pond) converted into a catfish pond and the Department of Conservation GAVE him all his catfish! Now granted, they weren't adult sized yet... But still! It wouldn't hurt to give them a call and ask about conservation grants or fish transplanting.