Industry Expert Bob Lusk
Nationally known fisheries biologist Bob Lusk, based in Whitesboro, Texas has helped people design, build, stock and manage private lakes and ponds for 29 years. The 53 year old graduate of Texas A&M University travels the country as a lake and fisheries consultant. He is editor of Pond Boss, a national bimonthly magazine dedicated to managing private waters. Lusk has also written three books, Basic Pond Management, Raising Trophy Bass, and Perfect Pond, Want One? He also has a video called, Basic Pond Management and a compact disk audio series on pond management. Two more books are in the works.
Lusk's career has spanned the gamut of private fisheries management, focused primarily in the South and Southeast, helping clients learn to be better stewards of their water, while growing balanced populations of sport fish in recreational ponds and lakes. He consults on everything from stocking small ponds to creating world class fishing programs for his select group of clientele to designing the perfect bass fishing lake.
Early in his career, Lusk owned or managed small hatcheries raising catfish, freshwater shrimp, sport fish and associated forage fishes. But, his passion lies in helping landowners become better managers of their water and wildlife resources.
Not only does Lusk edit the premier pond management magazine in the nation, he has authored hundreds of articles about the subject. He makes personal appearances at trade shows and seminars to spread the word of pond management and has been on numerous television shows from Alan Warren Outdoors to Bass Edge and many, many vignettes seen on Animal Makeover TV on RFD-TV as well as Monday Night Live on RFD-TV, sponsored by Purina Mills.
Articles by Bob Lusk
Know your Pond Life - Pond Maintenance and Care Tips
Different sunfish live different lives.
Knowing the difference helps make better decisions
By Bob Lusk
It never fails. I’ll get a call, or an e-mail from someone wishing to stock bass into their pond. A quick quiz into their program often tells the tale. Had a call today..“I need to stock my new two acre pond with bass. How much are they?” My immediate response, “Have you stocked forage fish, yet?” Answer, “Yea, my neighbor gave me some bluegill from his pond. We stocked more than 100.” Question, “Are you positive they were bluegill?” Answer..“Yes..well I think so.”
Red flags…
Sunfish species..coats of many colors, fish of many hats, and more than a handful of names.
Bream, chinquapins, perch, sac-a-lait, slicks, brim, gills….a handful of regional colloquial names for saucer shaped fish we collectively know as “sunfish.”
To know different species of sunfish is to understand them. Understanding leads to better decisions how to use these colorful fish.
Understand this..there are a minimum of 15 species of sunfish commonly found in and around ponds across this great nation. But, more importantly, only three or four are useful in pond management. That’s not to say other species can exist, and do no harm. They can. But, if you pick the wrong sunfish for the wrong application, your pond may not tell you about it for years.
Bluegill are head and shoulders above the choice of pond managers. Bluegill are the backbone of largemouth bass populations, all over the country. Goals to raise largemouth bass? (largemouth bass are members of the sunfish family, by the way) Then you need bluegill. Bluegill reproduce more often than other species of sunfish, especially in the south. In northern states, bluegill may only spawn once, maybe twice during their short growing season. Bluegill are colony nesters, and aren’t real picky about what to eat. An 8 inch bluegill has a mouth barely big enough to fit a pencil eraser. So, they don’t directly compete with game fish. Some strains of bluegill grow larger than a pound and a half.
Redear sunfish, also called “shellcracker” in the southeastern states, or “chinquapin perch” in Louisiana, and heavily utilized in southern and southwestern states, and up into warmer regions along the eastern seaboard and Midwest. Redear eat macroinvertebrates, especially snails. They live in a different niche than their bluegill cousins. Single spawners each year, redear are an “insurance” policy as a forage. Like bluegill, redear have tiny mouths, limiting their ability to compete with game fish. Plus, where redear grow, they thrive, some as large as 14 inches, pushing a pound and a half. They don’t like cold water, or ice.
Green Sunfish are found in most native watersheds in the nation. To not have green sunfish around you is the exception, not the rule. Green sunfish, called “slicks” in Arkansas, “yellow bellied perch” in other areas of the country, are iridescent green, with orange trim around their fins. With a big mouth, green sunfish are considerably more predatory than bluegill or redear. They compete directly with young game fish. Since they spawn once yearly, green sunfish aren’t preferred. Plus, they don’t grow much larger than your hand, so use as a game fish is limited.
We have all seen the advertisements for fish trucks coming to the local feed store. Hybrid bluegill are their choice most of the time, because hybrid sunfish live on a truck forever. Don’t fall into the hybrid bluegill trap if your goals are to grow largemouth bass. Hybrid sunfish are that…hybrids. Hatcheries take female green sunfish, and cross them with male bluegill. The offspring are mules of the fish business. They are aggressive, grow quickly, and will push a pound to a pound and a half. But, don’t expect them to reproduce. While some of the females have some viable eggs, 95% of hybrid sunfish are males. So, stocking these fish to provide a forage base is a mistake. If you use this fish, use it for its own merit, as a stand alone fish, maybe stocked in small ponds with channel catfish for diversity.
Next up, we have pumpkinseed sunfish. Often a staple native fish in the north, pumpkinseeds are a novelty in the Midwest and southern states. Pumpkinseeds can grow to 6-8 inches, maybe half a pound, but that’s about it. They do little harm in ponds, and can’t possibly outcompete bluegill.
Longear sunfish are another native species of sunfish which winds up in ponds from time to time. Colorful during spawns, longear sunfish may grow to five inches. They don’t hurt anything, but don’t contribute much, either.
Warmouth, also called “goggle-eye” and “rock bass” in some states, are another story. Thick across the back, soft flesh, dark color with speckles, warmouth compete directly as a predator. An 8 inch warmouth is a trophy, and it’s mouth is larger than a quarter. Consequently, these fish can eat young fish, any species. Aggressive, fun to catch, some pond owners like warmouth. But, not many hatcheries sell them. They spawn once yearly, and survival rates of young are usually dim.
Believe it or not, both species of crappie are sunfish. Black crappie spawn less and grow larger than their white crappie cousins. But, neither fish is one of choice in small ponds. Crappie need big, deep water, with big, structure. They run together in schools, and feed just above the bottom of the food chain, consuming volumes of young fish. Crappie can eat so many young fish, the entire food chain can quickly come to a screeching halt.
As tempting as it may be, resist the urge to catch a bream, slick, sunfish…whatever…from your friendly neighbor’s pond to toss into yours. Learn the different species, identify them, and based on your goals, decide which species to use. When you’re educated about different sunfish, and make wise choices, go for it. But, if you don’t know the fish, don’t be surprised to learn the hard way, several years from now.
Reprinted courtesy of Pond Boss magazine. www.pondboss.com
Silt, Nature’s Pond Pudding
By Bob Lusk
Every pond, over some period of time, ends up with a layer of slimy, pudding-like soils called "silt." This pond's owner chose to remove it with heavy equipment and reshape the entire pond to make it a recreational fishing pond.
When silt is exceptionally thick and wet, it takes a machine such as this trackhoe to remove it.
Silt. Soft, gooey, mucky black pond bottom stuff oozing between toes, staining shoes past ankles. Decaying organic contents of silt smell like rotten eggs. Wade the edge of your pond, and take a look.
Nature gives us silt, naturally. Silt is as normal as fallen leaves, grass clippings and fish poop. As a matter of fact, fallen leaves, grass clipping and fish stuff become ingredients of silt on pond bottoms all over the world.
To know silt is to understand silt.
Merriam Webster’s collegiate dictionary defines silt as “loose sedimentary material with rock particles usually 1/20 millimeter or less in diameter.” I know that’s true because Otto looked it up two issues ago.
The loosest of all soils, silt collects on top of more solid, clay based pond bottom soils. From there, water currents and wave action send silt into convenient areas for deposit. Take a look where water enters your pond. That’s the most likely spot to find new deposits of silt, washed there by recent rains.
If truth be known, most silt into a new pond comes from freshly disturbed soils of construction. As the pond fills, neighboring loose dirt washes downward, eroding shorelines, and pitching fine particles into silt bars and banks, deposited near inflow areas. Don’t step in it. There is a difference between silt and Shinola.
As a pond ages, less dirt comes in, but more organic matter collects. Water composts leaves, twigs, clippings and fish waste, and plops these new deposits on top of older ones. As time goes, silt layers become deeper. Finally, we perceive silt to be a problem. How do we know? Ponds lose depth.
If you think about it, a pond or lake is built, and then begins to age. Part of this process is accumulation of soils. Loose soils, silt, become home to cattails, reeds and rushes, usually in the upper parts of a pond…where water flows in. As silt mounts, cattails and reed families spread. Over time, a pond is covered with tall plants. With more years of age under your pond’s belt, soils collect and peek above the waterline, and terrestrial plants become dominant, The pond becomes land, again, as the shore moves inward.
New Orleans was built on soils deposited from Iowa, Indiana, Missouri and states robbed of dirt by the Mississippi River drainage basin.
Want to minimize siltation of your pond? Keep it out, from the beginning. Vegetate bare dirt, quickly. Compact shorelines. Minimize grades…shoot for 3 to 1 slopes. Where ground falls fast, consider silt fences. It’s easier to shovel silt from behind a silt fence or screen than to dig it out of a pond, underwater.
Have an old pond, with lots of silt? Careful, here. Removing muck is costly. It has to be dug out, pushed up, then spread out. Or, dug up, loaded onto a truck, and hauled away. Bottom line? Silt must be moved two or three times before disposal.
More often than not, it’s cheaper to move to another site and build a new pond than to clean out an old one,
Silt for the garden? After all, it’s been years fermenting and composting at the bottom of a pond. Forget it. Silt has no nutritional benefit to terrestrial plants. Besides, when silt dries, it shrinks and cracks. Then, when wet, it expands…like pudding. Don’t add to gardens.
Small ponds seem to magnify siltation. Smaller areas can be redefined by siltation from one rainfall event. So, if you have a mini-pond, give much thought during the planning stages, before the contractor ever turns a spade of dirt.
Ten years from now, your pond will thank you.
Reprinted courtesy of Pond Boss magazine. www.pondboss.com