Forums36
Topics40,942
Posts557,766
Members18,481
|
Most Online3,612 Jan 10th, 2023
|
|
2 members (Theo Gallus, Foozle),
735
guests, and
253
robots. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2018
Posts: 1
|
OP
Joined: Jan 2018
Posts: 1 |
have a small 7 acre pond depth ranging to 35 ft.when i bought this place the pond was loaded with stunted green sunfish. i stocked 900 lmb and 300 we to try to reduce sunfish numbers. after 2 years lmb and we are big and healthy. i'm now thinking about adding some hybred bluegils but concerned they may become prey whaddya think
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 15,139 Likes: 488
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 15,139 Likes: 488 |
Adding any type of sport fish to the pond for good survival will depend on the larger sizes of your current LMbass. Good survival of HBG will be if they are AT LEAST 3 times shorter than the bigger bass. So catch and measure lengths of your larger bass. Divide that length by 3 and this is the MINIMUM size of HBG you should stock. If you don't follow this rule then expect a lot of the stocker HBG to become fish food. Smaller HBG can be grown in a net pen (aka cage), fed out for several months to gain 1"-1.5" and then released. Plus if your greenies(GSF) are noticeably low density and their average size is increasing to harvestable sizes 7"-9" then I would remove some of the LMB before adding the HBG. Too many predators per acre can be a disadvantage.
In your 7 acre pond you added 900+300 = 1200/7ac =abt 170/ac. With a relative balance of predator and panfish then 100 LMB per acre should now be adequate. Sometimes when the pond has lots of weed growth (35%-50%) of the surface area more bass / ac are needed to get adequate predation of smaller fish. Reducing bass density will keep them growing better compared to if there were 150+ bass /ac. When the bass are not growing at least 0.5" per year then there are too many bass per ac unless the goal is crowded slow growing bass. All this depends on the goals for the pond and condition of the pond (habitat & water quality) and fishery.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 01/18/18 02:22 PM.
aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine - America's Journal of Pond Management
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 224
|
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 224 |
Great info above ...
Might be good to add some BG , and /or YP , not HBG. I would think with that many predator fish the GSF are not going to last long in terms of keeping them all fed well. You are going to need some regular BG to help fill the forage void in the years to come.
Eventually I think you will want to introduce some advance size BG / YP and start culling some of the LMB.
I Subscribe! 3/4 Acre Pond: HSB,SMB,YP,HBG,RES
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 8,794 Likes: 68
Chairman, Pond Boss Legacy award; Moderator; field correspondent Lunker
|
Chairman, Pond Boss Legacy award; Moderator; field correspondent Lunker
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 8,794 Likes: 68 |
YP populations historically struggle in fisheries with presence of LMB.
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 224
|
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 224 |
Good point TJ,
Rwermy -I think regular BG is the way to go if you want to add bluegill .
I Subscribe! 3/4 Acre Pond: HSB,SMB,YP,HBG,RES
|
|
|
Moderated by Bill Cody, Bruce Condello, catmandoo, Chris Steelman, Dave Davidson1, esshup, ewest, FireIsHot, Omaha, Sunil, teehjaeh57
|
|