Nursery Pond Potential
Fisheries Biologists in Hot Springs recently released the Lake Ouachita Nursey Pond. The nursery pond housed a crop of Florida Largemouth Bass, averaging 3.5 inches in size at release. These "advanced" fingerlings will have a survival advantage because of their size compared to naturally spawned Largemouth Bass of the same age. The 18-acre nursery pond, located west of Joplin has been used for many years to stock sportfish into Lake Ouachita.
The pond has a bottom gate which was closed in early January to begin capturing rainfall runoff from the watershed. During February, the AGFC’s Joe Hogan Hatchery in Lonoke stocked 430-pounds of Fathead Minnows into the pond to serve as a food supply for the bass fingerlings which were stocked later in the year. The pond was fertilized to promote the growth and spawning of the Fathead Minnows. In mid-July, the AGFC’s Andrew Hulsey Hatchery in Hot Springs stocked 50,000 fingerling Florida Largemouth Bass into the pond. The bass were allowed to stay in the pond until they exhausted their supply of minnow forage prior to their release.
The stocking of Florida Largemouth Bass (FLMB) into Lake Ouachita via the nursery pond is an expansion of the existing FLMB stocking program. Florida Largemouth Bass were initially stocked into Lake Ouachita starting in 2007. The goal from these introductions is to provide the potential for trophy Largemouth Bass production. Lake Ouachita will require repeated future stockings of FLMB to keep a desirable level of “big bass” genetics in the lake. One of these nursery pond stockers may be a 10 pounder 8-years down the road!
Lake Ouachita nursery pond at full pool.
Lake Ouachita nursery pond during release.
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Originally Posted by BIG M
