Ewest, I was not super excited about LMB but after reading through the site and listening I have decided that a healthy balance in the pond will be hard with only HSB so I have decided to use both HSB and LMB. I am actually a little excited about having the LMB to catch now!!! Based off 350 bluegil and red ears combined I have put 20 4-6” HSB and 20 6” LMB in my pond (thank you Todd Overton. A very professional fishery). I have heard some say to overstock the predator but I figure I can add more if needed so I tried to stick with the 10:1 ratio.
When walking around the pond I did notice some super small fry all over the shallows!!! I would assume fatheads ? I would take a picture but they are super small.
Thanks,
David
Its not the original fish (with adequate stocking) that will need managing its their offspring.
In most southern locations 10 t0 1 will result in LMB overcrowded in 3 years without harvest. 30 to 1 is suggested for trophy LMB. 10 to 1 is an old recommendation for food production from southern LMB/BG ponds from the 1930s.
I think another big issue besides pure numbers is timing and perhaps even the size of the fish.
In
my initial stocking my ratio was 4.3 BG to 1 LMB. By numbers only I should have had excessive bass production and a "big bluegill" type pond. But I ended up with over crowded BG and a few large LMB with limited or even no LMB recruitment. By the numbers what happened should not have happened.
But I think timing and size of fish in my case came into play. I stocked the BG on March 19 and for fingerlings they were very nice fingerlings. Most around 3" and a few even pushing 4". Obviously the previous years spawn. Then it was September before I stocked the LMB fingerlings which were also decent size but not large. Probably 4-6".
Had my initial stocking of BG been the size I got from another fish farm for later stockings of different ponds that were more like 1.5-2", maybe the BG would not have got the upper hand on the bass. Or if I would have stocked them at the same time.
But looking back and knowing what I know now, a lot of those 3" BG placed in March for sure spawned later that summer and it is very possible they could have spawned a couple of times or more before the bass were introduced.
Considering maybe a fourth to half of the fish spawned at least once before the LMB were introduced, and possibly even early enough before the bass were introduced so the fry were already big enough to escape the fingerling bass predation, the ratio at the time the bass were stocked could have grown into a ratio of hundreds to one.
I think there are a number of things that come into play besides just the stocking ratio. My 4.3 BG to 1 LMB got me a trophy bass type pond with overcrowded BG.
Edit: Another fact is I fed the FHM and BG, giving them even better growth and reproductive capacity.
