Well as they say, life is what happens while you are making plans.

Went out and caught around 20 LMB today in my 1.5 acre pond that was renovated 2 years ago. It was emptied and mucked out and dried for a month.

I put 8lbs of FHM and 1000 CNBG just after it got close to full around 1.5 years ago. Had the plan to wait until this spring to add LMB and that would really let the forage get established. I did add 50 or so Tilapia fry 1 year ago but it got really cold for a week last winter so think they died anyway.

So that is the back story.

Last week I had my trout rod in the truck when I was there so made a cast, ended up catching 4 LMB in 8 casts! WTH!!!

So I went today with a friend and in less than an hour we caught 20 or so LMB all were above the 80% and the largest ones were in the 95% RWR!

I did not see any CNBG but did not target them either. Could these LMB have gotten in my pond from a flood of my neighbors pond and then gone to town on the year old CNBG????

What do y'all think needs to be done? Should I get a feeder? I am pretty sure I need to get CNBG back in there fast but how without them getting chomped.

Thanks, will try to add pics.

One possibility would be to first check and see if you have adult BG in the pond. If you do, then you could just remove all the LMB you could catch and let the existing BG expand their population.

Can never get all the LMB out, but you might be able to reduce their numbers enough to let the BG get the upper hand.

No expert here. Just one way of approaching your problem.

I would suspect the FHM and a flood sure. does seem like a lot of LMB. first pond I built dumped in 10 LBS FHM turned on a feeder , in just a little while had little LMB running around when the feeder went off.
a feeder sure helps and keep catching LMB. where I live green sunfish will show up in a mud puddle. I don't know

My first LMB came from a well meaning "friend" who brought me some LMB just about a week after I stocked BG.

Yep, looks like you will need to add some type of larger sized forage fish to feed your nice looking lmb. Oh yes! you most likely will have to thin out the lmb numbers also. Nice looking lmb though.

How long ago did this happen? Even if you got some LMB with your CNBG order, reaching 19.5" in 2 years is hard to do. My bet would be interlopers from your neighbor's pond.

Ok, sounds like the consensus is I need big Gills to be able to jump ahead on the LMB population. I will start asking around. I might be up by Overtons next week so might check him for big ones.

I guess I also need to pull quite a few LMB. Should I pull the smaller ones or middle or large?

I also have some big 3lb Tilapia I can dump in in the spring, they would help with the weeds and spawn like crazy. could feed an army.

Thanks for the advise!

Rob

FireIsHot

Pond was empty and dry 2 years ago. Caught the fish yesterday.

Rob

FT, I meant when did your neighbor's pond overflow into yours?

I'm not a pro but I think I would remove all LMB with a relative weight less than 90%, regardless of length. IMO those 90% and above are your strongest fish and have figured out how to thrive even with the minimal forage population. It is their genetics I would want to retain for the future.


...Just my 1 cent

Pretty nice problem to have. I'd say feed em and eat em until you start to see them with large heads and small bodies, then add your big BG. You might keep catching those beauties for years.

FireIsHot,
We had 3 weeks back to back 15+ inch rains a little over a year ago, I bet it was the third event, 24" in 24 hours that did it.

It was the rain that blew out my smaller 1 acre pond. It was constructed with 2 overflow pipes (6") they must have gotten clogged with something and just eroded out, took the whole pond. It was that way when I bought it and has been corrected now.

Rob

My guess , given the size of the LMB, is a few slipped in with the first fish stocked. While possible it is unlikely someone bucket stocked 30+ 10 inch LMB a year ago.

No matter where the LMB came from, I would remove as many as possible of every size. So, every durn one you catch you remove. Don't feel sorry for the fish and let it go.

Hit it hard and fast between now and Feb before they pull off a spawn. That way it will lessen the hit on your pocketbook when you stock the CNBG.

You have to stock CNBG at least 1/3 to 1/4 the length of the largest LMB to avoid being eaten. Or stock 30%-50% more than suggested for a pond without predators and hope/pray that not all get eaten.

With that RW, the bass will be hungry..........

Ok, that is the plan then! WHACK the LMB ASAP! My mom really wants to go and fish some out so that will be fun for her too.

I also got with Todd Overton and he said he has 6" CNBG so will jump up the forage ladder a few rungs just in case.

Thanks for all the great help guys!

Rob

6 inch CNBG will do the job. Tell Todd you want offspring from George's CNBG.

Those RWs might sound good but for a new pond with the appropriate amount of forage they should all be 100+ from what I've seen here. WHACK EM, indeed!

Nothing like open range limit on a pond full of Bass. Enjoy!

Adult 5"-7" bluegill work very well when adding to an existing population of LMB that are in your size range. We had a forage issue with one of our ponds (1.6 acres) and the recommendation was to add 400 adult BG. We had an existing population of BG but not enough. It has worked out well. If you do a little research, it seems the recommended number of adult BG to add would generally fall in the 400 per surface acre area. BM61.

To add to what bassmaster 61 said, I had an old pond over run with GSF. I turned it around by catching adult BG out of my main pond and putting them in the old pond. It took a couple years and now I can still catch some GSF but the BG by far dominate the pond. Putting in BG big enough the GSF could not eat was the key as at that time they were the only predators in the pond. I used all sizes but a significant number in the 5-6" range.

Length weight SW RW

13.13 1.14 1.20 95.29%
14.00 1.74 1.47 118.37%
14.00 1.45 1.47 98.64%
12.10 1.08 0.92 117.02%
13.50 1.43 1.31 109.25%
13.00 1.27 1.16 109.45%
13.00 1.25 1.16 107.73%
13.00 1.32 1.16 113.76%
14.00 1.96 1.47 133.34%
17.50 3.63 3.00 121.16%
14.00 1.56 1.47 106.13%
12.75 1.19 1.09 109.11%
13.13 1.14 1.20 95.29%
14.00 1.74 1.47 118.37%
14.00 1.45 1.47 98.64%
12.25 1.08 0.96 112.51%
13.50 1.13 1.31 86.33%
13.00 1.27 1.16 109.45%
14.00 1.79 1.47 121.78%
13.00 1.21 1.16 104.28%
15.50 1.98 2.03 97.35%
13.25 1.41 1.23 114.35%
12.50 0.92 1.02 89.86%
13.00 1.12 1.16 96.52%
14.50 1.78 1.64 108.27%
15.00 1.82 1.83 99.35%
15.00 1.94 1.83 105.90%
14.50 1.56 1.64 94.89%
16.00 2.53 2.25 112.40%

My pond is 18 months from first stocking(3/2016 and 6/2016 & 3/2017 for LMB) and the above were LMB caught since September this year. I would guess either thru friends helping you out or upteam overflow, your CNBG got hammered.