We just dug our pond. Half acre and 20 feet deep. Aeration being installed.

We need a little guidance on the type of bluegill to place in pond. Hybrid vs regular Bluegill

Use of pond: swim and fish

I have read that Hybrid Bluegill may bite swimmers and if true we want to avoid this. We want the kids to have fun fishing but not at the expense of biting them while swimming. Also, if we go with regular Bluegill can a group of LMB keep them in check?

Hi, Chetscc. Welcome to Pond Boss!

I'm not an expert, but would say that bluegill would be better than hybrids if you want to swim. Also you might consider stocking pumpkinseed to keep down snails.

Largemouth bass will need prolific forage, and bluegill fill that role. If you'd rather go with smallmouth bass, probably should stick with pumpkinseed, as bluegill will get out of hand.

Be sure to build good spawning areas for the bluegill. If you put in a sandy beach area, they WILL want it for themselves, as I've discovered!

Pumpkinseed sunfish are much harder to locate compared to redear sunfish(RES) throughout the US. In Michigan, RES are hard to find for a seller plus RES are known to have limited survival in harsh MI winters. You can initially stock yellow perch(YP) and then after they spawn once, maybe that fall, add your largemouth bass fingerling.

YP will never bother swimmers with LMB present because the LMB keep YP densities pretty low density to a point you 1. either have to harvest lots of bass and or 2. periodically restock more larger sized(5"-7") YP. YP-bass is actually a better combo in MI than BG-LMB. You could stock BG-YP with LMB. YP would help a little to reduce recruitment of BG especially in winter when YP are active and small BG are pretty inactive. An unproven but possible option is YP-HBG-LMB. Adult HBG tend to be known to nibble on swimmers.

I doubt very much if anyone in central and southern US and Texas will ever find pumpkinseed sunfish. Texans and others in central and southern US should be using redear sunfish for snail control and for a sunfish that is not real prolific.

Bill, how would HBG/YP/pumpkinseed forage do with smallmouth bass in Michigan?

One of the first ponds that I stocked with HBG-YP and SMB did well for about 12-15 years with the help of 3 or 4 HSB and some occasional pellet feeding. A few walleye could have probably worked instead of HSB. Gradually the HGB interbred and became more like green sunfish rather than BG. Too few mutt HBG were harvested. Then there was a summer fish kill losing most of the SMB and mutt HBG overpopulated.

Any chance of the PS male breeding with the female Res? I would think if that could be done then maybe you might get a hybrid that can take the colder water temps and grows larger than the Ps.

Pumpkinseed X redear hybrids would be a very interesting fish to have in a pond where limited sunfish reproduction is desired such as in a SMB or WE pond that could have YP as a main forage fish.