Effect of wels catfish on a 2 acre water ?

[Tigger]

All,

 

I didn't mention depth because I doubt Tigger even knows. Peter M is, of course correct in that "acre/ft" is really how big a pond is. There is a formula using wels in the predator-prey pond management scenario somewhere in FAO. Since we don't have or want wels I haven't even given it a casual glance.

 

Peter, a "couple" wels is 500% fewer than 10 wels

 

Phone

 

 

The pool has a maximum depth of about 12ft to 13ft with the deeper parts covering approximatly quarter or less of it. I reckon the majority of the rest of the pool is between 2ft and 6ft.

I can't see that the depth makes any difference to how many fish the cats will eat, surely that would only determin the volume of water held in it. I'm thinking the tench will mostly frequent the lower levels be that in the shallower or deeper parts of the water anyhow and that's where I would imagine the cats will be catching them. There isn't that much weed in there but the margins are coverd with thick reed beds that go up to 10ft out into the water.

I'm going to bring it to the committes attention and see what their thoughts are.

[Peter M]

I am not a fan of putting cat fish into lakes and i certainly think that it will affect the general coarse fishing. If there is lots of weed on a deep lake this gives the prey a chance to hide. This is what happens on the lake i fish.

[Phone]

Tigger,

 

There you go thinking again. The dynamics of any pond is PRIMARILY determined by the total size. Up and down is equally as important as back and forth. The good news is - if there is any - the pond should "balance" in a couple three years. Unfortunately that may include the loss of some species and eventually the wels

 

Phone

[Dales]

I was a member of a club a few years ago for one season Cranbrook and district angling club they had a 2 1/5 acre lake on a commercial complex they took over called Springwood. I joined because it had cats and big ones at that. I only fished it a few times as I found it way to busy and hard to get a swim and far to May swims for a small lake. However, despite the cats up to 70lb it did have a good head of coarse fish with good Tench, Perch, Roach and Rudd from tiddlers up to Specimen sizes along with Carp.

 

I had heard of the fishery for years before Cranbrook took it over and it had Cats in it then. The fishery has been running for many years with Cats and still attracted lots of pleasure anglers having a good "bagging up" session on coarse fish. Maybe the club stock it every year with loads of coarse fish to keep stocks high, but I doubt it due to costs. If the Cats where emptying the lake it would make more sense not to stock and allow it to become a big fish water as it has Carp including huge Grass Carp.

 

I will not pretend to know fishery management but my thoughts are the Cats may well just fill the role as top predator as would Pike, Zander etc on other waters. It may also be that being a super busy water, plenty of bait goes in that the Cats find easy to feed on. I certainly had no problem catching lives quickly when I fished it. I certainly think the Cats will change the water over time and some species may well be effected more then others but it may not completely ruin it but there are many more people who know more about this stuff then me but it's an example I know about.

 

EDIT: Just thought of another place I have fished Tanyards has 2 coarse lakes with Cats, being a commercial they may well add stock and so not as good as an example as Springwood. Both the Tanyards coarse pools are small but do produce good Tench, Crucians, Roach, Rudd and Perch.

Edited April 26, 2015 by Dales

[chesters1]

If theres carp theres buckets of bait and its easier to catch boilies than silverfish

Theres talk of a couple in the lake i bailiff ,generally the advice is to accidentally lose them in the woods taking them for a walk if theyre caught

[Mat Hillman]

Sounds very similar to a water near me, around 2acres and 5ish foot deep, the previous owner stocked cats without permission, and the current owner later obtained EA consent. they also appear to be breeding in there, kittens have been caught on occasion.

 

On the plus side the water is still producing good carp, tench, roach, rudd and perch as well as cats now nearly 10 years after the original introduction,

 

Mat

[Dick Dastardly]

^{I love Catfish! think they are a great sporting species........... but as they are a non indigenous species and predator to boot they really need a LOT of thought before being stocked. All predator stocking needs to have the prey fish levels (and the impact on them) properly assessed but with catfish its even harder to get right. I say this as on some types of water they will have less of an impact than on others. For example on heavily fished carp waters the cats quite quickly switch from being out and out active predators to "scavangers" being quite happy to concentrate on carp baits rather than the carp! On non boillie/pellet pounded waters they will stay true to type and munch away on the stock. On heavily stocked/fished waters they can happily live alongside other species with no great noticeable effect on the other fishing. That said though Im afraid to say that on all waters I know of with high numbers of cats the tench have suffered.}

^{Despite what many anglers may think the EA/DEFRA are not idiots and fully understand this and as such are very restrictive in giving stocking consent. Not only this but they are more than keen of removing unofficially stocked cats as well. The CCG has worked alongside them a lot in recent years helping get these unwanted cats re hommed (to approved more suitable vennues) this has been a great sucsess. I mention this so that anyone with illegal /unwanted cats isn't worried about coming forward fearing the fish will be destroyed.}

^{But like I said on some waters they have no noticeable affect other than the tench (and of course even this depends on the levels of both) but often the only sure way to find out is by letting time run its course...and if the outcome of this isn't good its to late to remedy it!}

^{Another good reason for anglers not to meddle with nature.}

[Tigger]

Thank's Budgie, so the outcome does look quite bleak.

[Latimeria]

Tench are often slow-growing, so those decent 3-5lb fish will be very hard to replace, once they're gone they're gone.