Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Pond drying up

I have a small pond on my property that I never stocked our managed but I knew it had some good bass in it. Because of the ongoing draught here the pond has gone from one acre to about nothing so I decided to remove the fish and put them in the big pond rather than just let them die. It gave me a snapshot of what an unmanaged one acre pond can produce here in Texas.Five bass between four and five pounds. Several large crappie.and lots and lots of bluegill between three and eight inches. It surprised me that there were no large bluegill and no small bass.

Very interesting color on that crappie. Maybe it is just the lighting, but it looks more like LMB or BG coloring across the top, than it does crappie.

I can't imagine going through the drought you all are enduring.

In a small pond with no management why would you have lots of small bluegill and no large bluegill, a few large crappie, five largish bass, and no small bass?

I think that the LMB were eating the sized fish that they most preferred, and the crappie were eating the smaller fish. The fish that got larger that escaped being eaten by the crappie were eaten by the LMB.

At least that's my thoughts.

Bluegill with higher fecundity harassing large spawning bass, then eating and outcompeting any surviving YOY LMB. Crappie perhaps introduced as adults without conditions for spawning also pressuring the limited LMB progeny. No large bluegill because small bluegill strip all invertebrates leaving stunted population of similarly sized, but different aged individuals.

Hey bruce do you remember fishing this pond? Its dried up now due to the drought.

cormorants or otters cleaning up the small bass as the pond drops and no place for the fish to hide out.

yes Bruce vividly remembers fishing that pond. he says (via brainwave transfusion into my thoughts) he caught lots of small bass and a handful of large handsized bluegill last time he was out there. Further adding to the mystery.