Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Another New Guy

Chris,
Several things to do for producing larger BG in the smaller pond. There should be something in the Question & Observations Archives section about this. If there isn't we moderators need to create a topic about it.
1. The pond should be bass heavy with the population dominated by 6"-12" bass. This means harvesting primarily the largest bass caught in the 16"+ range. There is previous posts about why to do this. Larger bass can be caught by fishing with smaller BG (3"-4") under a bobber.
2. Feed the BG but just dont't use catfish food or similar food in the 32% protein range common at various stores. Use Purina Aquamax Carnivore (blue bag) that has 41% protein. It grows bigger BG faster. For a pond your size and feeding mostly BG a 50 lb bag should last you one whole summer. If you and dwlinc23 can share food purchases, buy a bag of 5D05 (3/16")and a bag of 5D06 (5/32") mix the two and then split it between the two of you. This gives two sizes of pellets one for smaller BG 3-5" and one for 6-9".
3. Harvest mainly the female BG to help produce larger BG overall. Searching the old topics will produce posts that will teach how to tell males from females and why to do it. Might be a topic on this in the archives.
4. Don't overfish the pond. It causes fish to be hook smart (shy) of the method used. Spend time feeding fish, harvesting small fish, angling for biggest bass and keeping records lenghts and sizes of fish caught.
5. Initially if small BG appear overabundant, manually harvest some of the 3"-5" BG with angling and trapping until the pond becomes bass heavy.
6. Try and get and read the 3 back issues of Pond Boss Mag (Mar-Apr, May-Jun, Jul-Aug 2006) of Growing Behemoth BG in Small Ponds by Cody, Condello and Baird.
7. Visit the website Big Bluegill.com.
I added this topic in the archives section. See it for a few more Big Bluegill tips.
Do these 7 things and the pond should be on its way to producing some bigger BG in 1-2 yrs.
I go to West Harrison IN every Christmas season. Maybe I could stop by some time to talk about your pond.