and where did it come from?
I think this is really interesting. Fishing a friends family owned farm pond. The farm is not a working farm anymore but in the past was used for hay and had cows. Story is 60+ years ago friends grandfather dammed up a stream that came from a slow spring and made a 1/2 acre pond. The dam is built out of cement and drops into a stream that is usually dry. It was stocked over the years with bass and sunfish that he caught in a local lake. Also brought in a bunch of craws. The bass in this pond don't get that big. Biggest I caught was a 3 or so pounder and the largest was a 4 pounder. Its mostly used for kids to have some fun with but we still fish it for fun.
Anyways in the 20 years he and I have fished it we have never seen any fish other than the suns and LM. All off a sudden a bunch of these little fish fry show up about 1-2 feet from the shore and appear to have a very sudden but healthy population. No one else fishes it as its in his back yard and its not visable from streets. He hasnt brought anything in either and hes not really happy about it. The bass and sun population is still good and no other fish have ever been caught here or been found dead. I cant see anyway this fish could have come up that stream, climbed a 6 foot concrete wall and jumped into the pond.
Any ideas on how this fish suddenly appeared in this pond and what it is? It has tiny whisker like barbs above its upper lip too.
[URL=http://s427.photobucket.com/user/The_Donovans/media/Bike%20Stuff/photo_zps581f6d31.jpg.html]
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I think this is really interesting. Fishing a friends family owned farm pond. The farm is not a working farm anymore but in the past was used for hay and had cows. Story is 60+ years ago friends grandfather dammed up a stream that came from a slow spring and made a 1/2 acre pond. The dam is built out of cement and drops into a stream that is usually dry. It was stocked over the years with bass and sunfish that he caught in a local lake. Also brought in a bunch of craws. The bass in this pond don't get that big. Biggest I caught was a 3 or so pounder and the largest was a 4 pounder. Its mostly used for kids to have some fun with but we still fish it for fun.
Anyways in the 20 years he and I have fished it we have never seen any fish other than the suns and LM. All off a sudden a bunch of these little fish fry show up about 1-2 feet from the shore and appear to have a very sudden but healthy population. No one else fishes it as its in his back yard and its not visable from streets. He hasnt brought anything in either and hes not really happy about it. The bass and sun population is still good and no other fish have ever been caught here or been found dead. I cant see anyway this fish could have come up that stream, climbed a 6 foot concrete wall and jumped into the pond.
Any ideas on how this fish suddenly appeared in this pond and what it is? It has tiny whisker like barbs above its upper lip too.
[URL=http://s427.photobucket.com/user/The_Donovans/media/Bike%20Stuff/photo_zps581f6d31.jpg.html]
By the way I want to add that the only live bait we have ever seen used was worms...never any shiners.
Also the only time its ever been opened up for any group of people was for a remote control boat race a few years ago when my friends was into doing that type of thing.
Also the only time its ever been opened up for any group of people was for a remote control boat race a few years ago when my friends was into doing that type of thing.
Thanks again for tbe input...
Nope not a Carp...Found out what it is!!
Someone identified it as a male fathead minnow. The bristles on the nose(breeding tubercles) and coloring give it away. In fact I now know there's also females in the pond. We tossed a minnow trap in there the other day and caught the same kind of fish pictured in my op and another unknown species which i now know us a female fathead minnow.
http://aquaticpath.umd.edu/fhm/intro.html
Now to figure out how they got there. It appears that these minnow are for sale all over the place dirt cheap. The can be used as bait or as ornamental fish in ponds.
I'm also now wondering if these were in there the whole time. If they were why all of a sudden are they showing up. The bass are healthy so it's not like they are dying off and the minnows are taking over.
Nope not a Carp...Found out what it is!!
Someone identified it as a male fathead minnow. The bristles on the nose(breeding tubercles) and coloring give it away. In fact I now know there's also females in the pond. We tossed a minnow trap in there the other day and caught the same kind of fish pictured in my op and another unknown species which i now know us a female fathead minnow.
http://aquaticpath.umd.edu/fhm/intro.html
Now to figure out how they got there. It appears that these minnow are for sale all over the place dirt cheap. The can be used as bait or as ornamental fish in ponds.
I'm also now wondering if these were in there the whole time. If they were why all of a sudden are they showing up. The bass are healthy so it's not like they are dying off and the minnows are taking over.