Prairie Road Pond

Largemouth Bass

Excellent

Prairie Road Pond has one of the best Largemouth Bass populations in the area -- very high abundant with relative weight (the measure of a fish’s “plumpness”) high in all size categories. Forty-five percent of the catch was over 15 inches and 20% of the fish caught were over 18 inches. The largest fish in the sample were a pair of 21.5 inch bass that weighed 5.2 and 5.6 pounds. These fish have multiple forage species and seem to be exploiting them well! Multiple size classes (age classes) were present in the sample indicating successful reproduction of adult Largemouth Bass.

Bluegill

Excellent

Bluegill abundance (measured by catch rate) is extremely high. The sampling shows evidence of stunting in the Bluegill population as the largest fish was only 6.5 inches long with an average size of 5.0 inches (only four percent of the sample was over six inches). The overabundance of Bluegill may be due to the availability of gizzard shad to the largemouth bass. Harvest of this species (when regulations are determined) should help reduce abundance and allow for growth of larger Bluegill.

Black Crappie

Fair

One 6.6 inch Black Crappie was captured in our sampling. The IDNR does not recommend stocking crappie into ponds this small as they are extremely successful spawners and their offspring can compete with bass and bluegill. Stocking crappie in this pond would only be feeding the abundant bass population.

Channel Catfish

Improving

One twenty-three inch Channel Catfish was caught in the most recent survey. It weighed a healthy 5.3 pounds. This lake will likely be entered into the IDNR Channel Catfish stocking program to help bolster the population.