3/4 acre pond. 5 foot deep. Just put 500 3” Coppernose bream in it. My goal is to manage for large Coppernose. I have been told and I’ve read that bass are the key to achieve this goal. My question is when to add them, how many, and how large? I’m new here. Looking forward to reading the boards. Thanks in advance.

I would PROBABLY add about 50 bass, maybe 100. The trick is to have enough predators that they could concentrate on the small BG leaving a slot for only the bigger ones. However, at some point some of the bass will always get big enough to get some of the bigger BG.

BTW, it gets important to remove enough larger bass.

What size bass would you add and when? Again, the BG are 2-4” right now.

A LMB can eat anything up to 1/3 its length. So a 6 inch bass will target prey up to 2 inches long. As they get bigger, so does their food requirements. A 12 inch bass is going to seek out the biggest prey it thinks it can swallow.

You could introduce smaller LMB now as long as you have something else in the pond to feed on smaller than your smallest BG. Also take into account that BG need very small feed items. Even a 10" BG cant eat anything bigger than maybe 1-2".

I would wait on the bass until your BG start to spawn. Those fry are going to be the building block for both species' success.

Its nice to have someone else here who's pond goal is big BG. Most pond meisters are wanting to raise trophy sportfish (LMB/SMB/WE). The theories for raising big BG is a bit different than raising big bass. It takes a lot of predators in small size class to keep the majority of your BG in check so the best and biggest continue to thrive. I've come to think, for my purposes anyway, crappie are a better predator than bass (I have both in limited numbers as well as others) They dont get as big, can eat some relatively large BG for their size, and are prone to overpopulation and stunting. They are the first to spawn, so their fry act as food for both themselves and existing BG.

There's a lot of good information out there on theories and case studies on how to raise monster BG, even in a small pond. It's a balancing act, for sure.

Yea I love bass as much as the next fella but something about slab BG takes me back. Thanks for the info.

The simplest route to big CNBG is feeding them. However, it isn't cheap to give them the high protein pellets they need. Grain based feed is fine for catfish, but not so great for growing CNBG

I agree totally with feeding a high protein/fat feed to get the best out of your BG, regardless of the subspecies, but with small ponds, with limited carrying capacity, selective harvest becomes very important as well. Controlling numbers from both ends by reducing the number of breeding sized females (5+"), and having a predator base that will handle the smaller fry and YOY becomes every bit as important. The males are going to get the biggest so giving them the run of the pond will increase the overall size potential. The smaller males will be forced to become bigger before they mature enough to compete with the big bulls. Genetics from the top performers will naturally be passed down.

Also, not stocking other, more fusiform forage, since they will naturally be easier to swallow and therefore be targeted first, forces the predators to focus on the BG. I would lean heavily toward GAMs, since they dont get as big as the other, more popular minnows/shad and become feed for both predator and BG.

Harvest is always an important function !

3 keys to ponds - water quality , understanding productivity and proper harvest !

Knowledge followed by experience (yours and others) are critical.

I would add 3 to 4 inch bass.

I once bought 100 one to 1.5 inch bass for a creek on my property. I acclimated them and then ease them into the water. I was watching 2 of them that were side by side. Suddenly there was only one with half the other one sticking out of the first ones mouth. I’m sure it died also.

Excuse my ignorance, but GAM? Also, what food? Ive read aqua max but there are 100 types

GAMs = Gabusia. Also known as mosquito fish. They are a very prolific minnow that do live birth rather than spawn. They typically dont get much bigger than 2" and can be readily identified by a black spot near the anal vent. (I think it's the unborn on the females, males dont have it) I believe they are actually akin to guppies. I've had them in my pond naturally almost since day one along with mud minnows and they seem to hold their own even with all the different higher on the food chain predators. Their numbers dwindle down, then come booming back, here anyway. They are hard to find from a hatchery as apparently, there's not much money to be made on them since they exist almost everywhere in the wild.

I personally use AM500 as my primary supplemental feed, and live Black Soldier Fly Larvae that I raise myself. The AM500 is a very good feed, high in protein and fat, it's big enough that very small fish really have to work for it, but small enough that 3"+ BG can readily eat it. I only feed once a day, by hand, and only what they can eat in about 10 minutes.