Home shad pond

[drag4striper]

I am considering turning my in ground gold fish pond into a shad pond. I will need to put a new liner in it first. A half grown rabbit fell in and made hole trying to get out.
I estimate it is about 850 gallons. Can anyone give me an idea of how many large gizzards it might hold?

The distance I travel to the lake
and having to catch bait before I can wet a hook gets old fast.
So I figure I would try this route.
I have read about bentrods home tank and it has inspired me. It would be nice to start fishing upon arrival.
Two more questions I have , is salt necessary in a home tank and can ale's survive mixed with the gizzards in a large tank? I appreciate any in put.

[Yam]

I considered doing this myself. I finally decided it is less convenient to maintain your pond than it is to get up early and catch them. I am not saying that you can't have an awesome shad pond. Heck, I would love to see you do it. But you still have to catch the shad at some point and most likely you will do it at the end of a long fishing day. And then when you get home, rather than going to bed, you will need to add another hour for babysitting shad from your tank to your pond. Bottom line, catching shad at the lake, although hard, is the easiest solution unless you have a tank at the lake.

Things to consider:

Bentrod has his tank indoors.

Do you have a means for adding O2? Surface agitation is your best bet.

Salt slows down the shad... reducing negatives from stress. It also hardens scales. 1 cup salt per 10 gallons water for bait tank and transport is recommended. Lighter concentrations to zero for your pond. This will probably require trial and error. I would start with a 0.2% solution in my pond and work down to 0 and see what happens. Do you have a means for measuring salinity?

There are many other issues as well.

You will really need to love shad. Bentrod can be found staring at his shad for hours locked in a state of peace and tranquility. He loves them so... I just want to see them die.

[R22]

I started a 525 gallon home tank for the last several months of 2016 winter/spring planer board season. I have no idea how a pond compares to a tank, however, I would assume that a pond with a liner would be a similar experience aside from algae build up resulting from direct sunlight on the pond. My tank is sheltered from direct sunlight and algae has not been an issue. I have a two stage filtration system with a pump that cycles the water a little more than once per hour. I have a separate internal pump with a Dannco venturi. prior to setting up my tank I communicated with several others that had traveled this path before. Everyone I spoke with went out of their way to help me. Everyone was very cooperative and forthcoming with their advice. The advice was mostly consistent from person to person. The few things that I heard from everyone that were spot on and as follows.

First, don't think that you will fill your tank/pond, add salt and fish and everyone lives happily ever after. Most people experienced in this process told me it would take a couple of months before the bio would build up so that bait fish would survive. It took six weeks for this to establish in my home tank.

To begin the process, add salt as if it was a tank of bait for the day. You will need to make partial water changes during the first six weeks. I never changed more than 40% of the water and most of the time it was 20% or less. After four weeks, you will begin to see some success, and at that point, cut back on the amount of salt you use. I would calculate the volume of water changed and begin to use 1 cup for every 25-30 gallons.

During the break in period, I tested the water regularly. Only once, during the second week, did I get reading that showed the PH was outside of an acceptable level. The same was true with ammonia. I did add a nice size bag of zeolite into the first stage of the filtration. I do not know if this helped or not. The timing of the turnaround for the tank happened about the time I added the zeolite so I simply left them in the filtration.

I believe a significant key to a productive home tank was building the number of baits in your tank slowly. One person I spoke with raised aquarium fish and sold them to retailers. He told me to build my bait stash slowly and indicated that the bio built inside the filters would establish a habitat for the number of fish you have in your tank up to the point of excess. He said to build to build the bait numbers gradually to establish the right bio for the number of baits you hope to maintain on a regular basis. Once the bio was established I definitely felt moving up in the number of bait fish in the tank went very easy compared to building the original bio.

Next, keep adding fresh bait as regularly as you can. Cull dead and dying fish as quickly as possible (3-4 times a week) during the break in period. At the six week mark, magic happened, the water began to clear naturally and the mortality rate in my tank went from 100% at week three to less than 5% after six weeks. After the six week mark, I built my stash over the next several weeks and probably had as many as 200 gizzards in the tank that ranged from 8-15 inches at its peak.

I only tried mixing gizzards and alewives for a very short time. The alewives are pretty sensitive and do not seem to play well with the gizzards. For me, it was easier catch fresh alewives at my dock light as it usually takes 1-2 throws before I am ready to go fishing. I abandoned the effort to keep alewives just about as quick as I started.

[gofish2]

R22, where did you get your tank? I have been looking for one for the pass couple of months. I found one at Tractor Supply (500 gal) but it has a dome, and if you cut the dome off you will lose a lot of the volume of water.

[R22]

I found the tank you are talking about on Craigslist. The tank is 525 gallons. I kept the dome on mine and cut a door into it. It helps to maintain the structural integrity of the tank while keeping the light and critters out. Despite of the loss of volume, it is still a very large tank for my use.

[drag4striper]

Thanks for all the info R22 and Yam. That's a sweet setup R22.
This pond is what I will start with.



If I can't make this work out I may go to a tank.
I have a lot of work to do.

[Pete D.]

I have also played with the idea of a home bait tank. But, here is what deterred me:

No home bait tank: Spend 2-3 hours and catch bait in the morning, go fish with your fresh baits, hopefully catch fish and go home.

Home bait tank: Take your baits out of you tank, get to the lake 1-2 hours later than the other guys with your bait, go fish with your baits, hopefully catch fish, go out for 2-3 hours and catch bait, to then transport home.

Like Yam said, you almost have to love the shad to do this. Otherwise, you are spending the same amount of time CATCHING bait regardless if you take them from your home or not. But I hear ya, I would love to be able to get to the lake later in the morning, but it would be just as much of a PITA telling your fishin bud, after a long tiring day of fishing, hey man watch me throw the net for 2-3 hours before we go home. At least in the morning they are all AMPED up about the bait that you are catchin!!!

[Yam]

Sept 19, 2016 10:33:26 GMT -5 R22 said:

I found the tank you are talking about on Craigslist. The tank is 525 gallons. I kept the dome on mine and cut a door into it. It helps to maintain the structural integrity of the tank while keeping the light and critters out. Despite of the loss of volume, it is still a very large tank for my use.

R22... Awesome tank. And BTW, I'm still loving my xtratough boots. I may have mentioned that my first pair got sliced up from my own stupidity. I returned them and somehow got 2 new pairs for free. And they really are warm, comfortable and dry! 2 years plus now and I wouldn't even think about trying something else.

[R22]

If space doesn't present an issue for you, I would not hesitate to pull the trigger on this one. It is a beast!

lynchburg.craigslist.org/grd/5767122612.html

[mwardncsu]

One thing to consider on tank size - you have to catch the fast critters in that tank...to large in diameter and it can be tough - a net with mesh drug through the water does not move very fast when you're trying to nail them down.

Now, you could create some type of "fence" that you drop in an close to trap them in a smaller area - sort of like a cattle pen..... or something where you raise a net secured to the bottom.....


Generally I say more water volume is good in these things - helps keep things more stable - but there is also the practical side of access to consider.

[drag4striper]

R22 when you say bio I assume you are referring to algae growth? If so would I need to save say ten gallons of the green water when I change the liner to speed up the process?
I will be using city water that I treat for chlorine.
That always worked for the gold fish.

Several of you guys have mentioned the time after I fish would be when I catch my replacement bait.
I have three small to medium lakes within 20 minutes of the house. I had hoped to catch my bait from them. The bait would have a short ride home and have a better chance of survival, plus I would probably just go to catch bait. Now this doesn't mean I would by pass
easy gizzards on SML , if there is such a thing.

[2 oars & a trash can]

The goldfish pond is going to attract every heron, snake ad turtle within 5 miles to their free shad.

They test and rip open every cage lid I try.

[hotdog]

I had a small tank setup at my house for a while. I think what R22 means by bio is the bio filter you would have to clean the fish waste from the water. The problem I had was keeping the water at an acceptable temp. I used well water in my tank and in the summer I would have to change 50 percent of the water every day to keep it below 75 degrees. My tank was in the shade but not insulated. Keeping bait at home is a chore but it's also educational. Good luck.

[steviejayvaughan]

I think using a pond would be a good idea as opposed to using an above ground tank, but in my opinion you lose one of the key benefits of home cured bait, and that is they take on the color of their surroundings. I have a white home tank and anyone else will tell you they turn a lighter color. Does this make a difference maybe not, but I like to think it does. Also cured out bait doesn't need as many water changes and no filter cleanings once put on the boat tank. I have used a small 140 gallon tank and now have a 275 gallon setup.