Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking missed a year of fish stocking

We have a relatively small pond (5 acres) that was stocked with bream fingerlings two years ago. The pond is now absolutely full of 3" - 5" bream.

We had planned on stocking with some large mouth bass, but missed our schedule.

How should we move forward?

Thanks!

What's your primary goal, trophy bass, trophy bluegill, or good-sized specimens of both? It's easier to manage for one or the other, though there are ways of managing for both.

If big bass are your primary focus, you've stumbled into a happy accident; most pond managers on here prefer to stock forage a year before the bass to allow the forage time to overpopulate the pond such that once the bass are introduced they have all they could ever want to eat. You have that now: oodles of small bluegill that will be prime fodder for bass within a year or less of when the bass are stocked. You would definitely need to stock bass 4-6" or better, since if you stocked fingerlings now the bluegill would eat most if not all of them. But as soon as those bass get to 10" or so and can eat a 3" bluegill, they'll grow like weeds because they have a great food supply. If bass are the focus, stock 200 4-6" LMB; a good mix would be 100 tiger bass, 50 northern-strain, and 50 Florida unless you're in the mountains, in which case you might be better served just going with northern-strain. You could also stock threadfin shad and golden shiners along with the bass as additional forage sources, and they'd be able to establish well with all the bluegill that are already in the pond taking some of the pressure off from the bass. If you're not at a high elevation and you stock tiger (F1) bass, you should have some big bass in two or three years.

If on the other hand your primary goal is big bluegill, you're going to have to take corrective measures. At a minimum you'll want to stock lots of bass, at least 500 4-6", if not more, and you'll want to impose a catch-and-release policy on all bass so they stay in the pond and thin the bluegill. I would also recommend stocking an additional predator, either HSB, or my preference as they'll thin the bluegill quicker and with more certainty, tiger muskie or northern pike. If you stock esox you can go lower on the bass numbers, and you'll also end up with larger bass than you would just relying on the bass to thin the bluegill as the pike/muskie will also keep the small bass thinned such that the bass that live have more food and get larger. If you go with HSB, I'd say 10 or so per acre, 10" or better; if you go with esox, 2 to 4 per acre, 12" each. Tiger muskie are sterile and cannot reproduce, so that's an additional advantage for them. You would also want to look at fertilizing, and if you want maximum bluegill growth you should install two or three automatic feeders and set them to feed two or three times a day.

A pretty good summing it up.

Walt's a little keener on Esox than most here. I personally don't see a need for them in a big BG pond.

Thanks! That gives me some direction to move in!