Rick Eades, front, and Jeff Blaser of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission spent time June 4 at the Seward City Pond checking the status of its inhabitants.

Stephanie Croston

    A quick sample conducted June 4 found plenty of bluegill, not many bass, a few crappie and carp and three white perch in the Seward City Pond.
     "You don't want to see white perch," Rick Eades, urban fisheries specialist with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, said. "If they get out of hand, you have to kill the pond."
     Costs would include chemicals to kill the fish and then money to buy fish with which to restock the pond.
     Instead, Seward's pond, located behind the Dowding Municipal Pool, needs more bass, Eades said.
     The survey found "lots of bluegill and not too many bass," Eades said.
     Bass, which are a predator fish, would help keep the bluegill population in line. During the survey, the Game and Parks representatives found 93 bluegill and just four bass in the pond.
     "We'd like the see the ratio closer to five to one than 25 to one," Eades said.
     He said Game and Parks plans to add about two dozen bass to the pond. With a catch-and-release stipulation placed on fishermen who catch bass, the fish populations should arrive at a better balance.
     Eades hoped to have the bass added sometime this year, but since the spawning season has passed, the timing is not as crucial.
     They are also planning to add about 250 catfish so anglers will have something to take home. Because catfish do not reproduce in smaller ponds like Seward's, they will have to be restocked annually, Eades said.
     "It's easy to raise catfish to a catchable size in one year," he said. "It takes three years for bass."
     To take a count of the fish in the pond, Eades and Jeff Blaser, private waters specialist with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, shocked them. The electrical current stuns the fish momentarily, allowing researchers to scoop them out of the water.
     "We take them to the shore and measure them. We analyze what's there," Blaser said.
     Eades reminded area residents that only Game and Parks personnel are allowed to stock public waters like the city pond.
     "It's illegal for the public to stock public water," he said, adding that may be one way the white perch found their way into the pond.