Learn how you can protect your fishery from this protected species by adding artificial habitat throughout your pond or lake.
Protecting your forage population and young juvenile predators from Cormorant predation becomes a lake management priority during the winter months. Flock numbers can range from a few individuals to hundreds of wintering birds that can absolutely devastate a forage base, reducing their availability to your game fish stocks once the growing season begins. Roosting flocks of Cormorants can also lead to other environmental factors, including localized dead zones within the pond, tree death due to soil acidization from flock excrement, and shoreline cover degradation from nesting and perching activity. This loss of shoreline cover can then lead to secondary implications such as erosion of pond banks and turbidity issues.
Cormorants usually begin showing up in many parts of Texas and Oklahoma around late fall, early winter. Foraging primarily in water 15’ and under, this means that most ponds and small lakes are ideal spots for these birds to utilize. Adult Cormorants are capable of consuming up to 1 lb. of fish per day. When you start to add up the number of days these birds are present on your fishery, then multiply how many there are within the flock, it becomes apparent very quickly just how big of an issue these predators pose to your hard work and investment. Here’s the real kick in the teeth; yes, these birds are the most successful in capturing your forage species and smaller predators, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t try and snag a 1-3 lbs. Bass. These larger fish can usually escape capture, but there is often damage to your game fish from the interaction. I have been on many surveys in the spring and collected Bass with either open wounds or healed scars from previous Cormorant altercations. Cormorants' eyes are definitely bigger than their stomachs. The size of fish they will try to capture would most definitely surprise you.
As water temperatures continue to drop during the winter, forage fish begin to school up, both to conserve energy and also for better predator evasion, that is until the Cormorants arrive. Cormorants will hunt and feed as a flock to better corral and capture prey. This spells disaster for your forage species, as this collects a greater density of fish into a smaller area for the birds to pick off. Having habitat out in open water portions of your fishery will provide fish attractors during the growing season and complex cover that the fish can utilize to evade the Cormorant flocks more effectively.
As you can see, hard structural cover, whether natural or artificial, is important to the interactions between your game fish and forage species and your fishery in general. To properly protect your fish from these avian predators, there needs to be complex habitat available even in the depths of winter. Ensuring that this habitat is adequately distributed in both the shallow and deep-water portions of your pond will help to ensure you are not restocking baitfish year after year due to Cormorant loss. If you have any other questions on choosing the right habitat to protect your fishery or how to limit the effects of Cormorants on your pond, feel free to contact me anytime at askapro@pondking.com.
See y’all down at the pond!