Hi all, this is my first post and I need a lot of help on turning my pond around. I have just recently bought a house with a pond on the property. The pond is around an acre in size. The pond is 15+ years old and the previous landowner said it was stocked with bass, bluegill, channel cat, and he put Amur grass carp in 7 years ago. From what I have fished so far there are tons of small starved bass, big sunfish, no bluegill and I haven't tried fishing for cats yet. My intentions for this pond are to grow and catch trophy largemouth bass. I want all catfish gone as well because they compete with bass. I also plan to stock adult bluegill from my father in law's pond into mine since there are no bluegill. So here is my problem with pics.

Here is the pond about 1 acre in size. It has some kind of aquatic vegetation growing around the shallow parts to about two- three feet out, coon tail or something. I don't know if I should remove a lot of this or not?


Here is the average sized bass. Way small looks like stocking size.


A lot are starving like this one


I have removed a total of 44 bass so far I plan on removing lots more.

I know I probably shouldn't have. I don't know if it was a good idea or not But I put this guy in the pond to help out with population control on the small bass? I don't know if it will help or not. Any input on this would be great.


And here are the sunfish in the pond. At least I think they are sunfish. I have not removed any of them yet... I don't know if I should...



Any input would be greatly appreciated as I need a lot of help.

Looks like Hybrid Blue Gill, due to lack or reproduction on them the bass are starving and overpopulated. Remove every bass you can, actuall every one might be stunted and never get to trophy size. You might have to add some fresh Genes but you need to get a food source established. That will be hard to do with loads of straving hungry bass waiting for somting to eat........Keep taking them out, all if you can....IMO

Your gonna need to stock bluegill big as you can get them.. The bass you put in won't make a difference.. You have more to worry about than him.. Keep all the bass you catch unless it's as big or bigger than the one you Put in..

You might consider draining, applying rotenone and starting from scratch. It's definitely what I'd do.

I agree with the ideas of Bluegillkiller and Bodock. But, you need to do one or the other. The only in-between might be to draw the pond way down, seine it, and keep some of the smaller bass -- but, even then, they might out compete any bluegill you plan to put in. You need lots of bluegill to get those bass fat. You need to feed those bluegill to get the bass fat. The catfish -- eh? The compete, but ...

Good luck,
Ken

Whoa those bass are starving! I would rotenone the pond and start from scratch. Once everything is dead I would stock your forage and wait at least a year to stock your bass. Then stock in small numbers which will help your new stockers grow rapidly before you have to worry about overpopulation (which you will have to do eventually no matter what).

If you want the catfish gone it will be tough to remove them through angling alone as Channel Cats get notoriously hook shy. I really think Rotenone is your best bet.

Congrat's on buying a place with such a beautiful pond on it!

If it were my place, I would read as much of this forum as possible, buy Bob's Pond design book, and try and get a reputable pond expert out to my place before I did anything.
You will save time, money, and frustration. IMHO

If this is your first pond welcome to the brotherhood of water management. Be careful....it can be very addictive!

What is your definition of a trophy LMB? 5+ pounds? 8+ pounds? 10+ pounds?

Realize that the best of 1 acre ponds can support around 100 pounds of bass. Think about that for a moment... Even if your average bass is 3.3 pounds, that is roughly 30 bass. How smart do you think those 30 bass are gonna get with just minimal fishing pressure? So smart they'll be about impossible to catch! Trying to growing trophy bass in a 1 acre pond and expecting it to produce good results is in my opinion an unreasonable expectation.

A 1 acre pond can however produce far more pounds of BG/sunfish per acre. This means it is reasonable to grow trophy BG/sunfish in smaller ponds.

I would strongly consider a HSB/HBG/CC stocking. If you have never caught HSB, they make LMB look like wimps! They take to pellets very easily meaning you can produce far more pounds per acre than LMB. They won't reproduce in your pond meaning unlike pellet trained LMB, in a few years you won't have piles of non pellet trained LMB stunting.

If you don't care for HBG and CC, then you don't even have to stock them. You can stock just HSB.

If it was my pond, I would renovate it completely whether by chemical, draining or a combination of the two. I would then invest in a quality aeration system and fish feeder. To expect a quality trophy LMB fishery in a 1 acre pond is unreasonable. You need 3 acres and preferably 5+ acres to even consider a long term trophy LMB fishery where the bass aren't so smart the only way to catch them is via live bait.

However, decent numbers of 4-8 pound HSB can be grown in a 1 acre pond if aerated and fed.

Travis would smallmouth work in Tennessee?

They're a possibility...

There are SMB ponds in TN - the more north and higher elevation the better. You have options. What do you want ? Small trophy LMB ponds are not easy to do. BG/RES , FH , GShiners , HSB and SMB might work well.

Go here , find your place and measure the pond. It might be smaller than what you were told. I'd put $$ on it.

You were right about the sunfish, it's a green sunfish (GSH). They compete with small LMB for food..........

Those look like GSF to me and yes you need some BG in the pond to feed bass.

Also you have a lot of work ahead of you to get the small bass out, would be nice if you could get them with a little more meat on them then they can be eaten.

Tilapia would make a nice addition if they are legal to stock, plus take pressure off of your BG and let them get started.

Keep us posted on what you decide to do.

CJ hit this spot on. I also have a 1 acre pond and I couldn't wait to start growing big LMB and it didn't take me long to figure out that I did not have the skills to do it!! I have had my pond for 3 years now and the biggest LMB I have got has been 18 inches, but most are 14 to 15 inches. So I have shifted my goals to large CNBG, RES and HSB. I now have air in place and a feeding program also! It is all starting to pay off. I have caught a few 10 inch RES and 8 plus inch CNBG now. My HSB i put in my pond in April were 8 to 10 inches and they are already over 12 inches with a feeding program. Trust me I wanted more than ever to have large LMB but you may have to settle with a few medium LMB as a bonus fish every once in a while and large BG and HSB! The guys are right I couldn't believe how much fight a 12 inch HSB has! It's unreal. I can't wait to catch a 4 pounder!!! Hey good luck and keep us posted as to what you do ok.

Considering the severely stunted bass, greenies, and size of your pond, I would rotenone and start over. CJ has some great points and options. Establish your goals, map out a plan and take off! Good luck!