1/2 acre pond 10-12 years old. I bought the property 5 years ago. Fished a bit, never got so much as a nibble and got busy doing other stuff. This spring we were seeing bluegill in the shallows so we tried some bread on under a bobber. No takers do my son started tossing a top water just for fun. Next 30 minutes yielded a half dozen LMB. Being all excited and having no experience, I immediately put in 8 pounds of flathead minnows, 300 copper nose bluegills and 50 2” channel cats.

Obviously, probably not the best course of action but still catching the bass and seeing larger bluegills (haven’t really fished for them). Hopefully I haven’t thrown things out of whack too much. I would like to have a pond where I can regularly catch eating size bass and bluegill. We’ve been told that catfish aren’t likely to reproduce in a pond this size so we’ll keep a count on them once they get bigger and decide whether it’s a good idea to put more in at some point in the future.

Look forward to learning how to manage this pond for my goals.