Pond Boss
just need a quick rough number on how many bass should be in a half acre pond. Thanks
It's actually weight you want for carrying capacity vs. numbers. Depending on the size of the bass the numbers could be all over the place.
my question is because im helping a friend get some bass out of his pond. He said he stocked HBG and LMB a few years back and his family fished out the bluegill for fish fries. He said he is now bass heavy and wants to get some out before he restocks BG. I asked him if he realized he didnt have enough forage and he understands. So I went out saturday to catch some of these stunted bass and was surprized that every fish I caught was 2-3 lb and quite fat and quite numerous. Now im going to catch and remove as many as possible, but I was just shocked that they were so healthy, and curious how many should be in there.
Perhaps they pellet fed his hybrid bluegills and the bass were pellet trained too?

Hybrid bluegills make lousy forage on their own due to the lower reproduction rate (up to 90 percent males). I notice a lot of fish producers don't tell their customers that.

I once had about 400 1/2 to 6 pound bass in a .62 acre pond. I could do it because I was feeding them. However I'd never do that again. In fact I don't have green carp anymore - aka LMB.
He never fed them that I know of. I guess my question is, he wants me to hammer them hard this week so could I possibly take out to many or is this the best time to do it before he restocks?

P.S. You lost me with the green carp!!
Green Carp = LMB in Cecil's terminology. The LMB loook fat because they are pre-spawn. It's been too cold (at least around here) for them to spawn yet. For numbers, depending on what he wants to manage for, 50-100 per acre in the pond, but it also goes by weight. I have 38 LMB in the pond that are tagged, tagged LMB get returned to the pond, non-tagged LMB get removed. If the pond is LMB heavy, the best time to take them out is pre-spawn.
green carp=largemouth bass

It is possible to take out too many bass. Particularly in a 1/2 acre pond. A half acre pond will support roughly 50 pounds of bass. When you think about it, that's only 25 2 pound bass... Now if the pond is aerated and the bass are pellet trained and fed, the pond could support 3, 4 or more times that many pounds.

Does this pond really have nothing in it now but LMB? Numerous 2-3 pound chunky bass just isn't making sense.
I still say they were probably feeding on pellets with the hybrid bluegills.
Another thing to consider here. When restocking BG or HBG remember that the restockers will have to be big enough that the remaining bass dont eat the stockers. When removing the bass measure how big their mouths are for the various sizes/lenghts. Give us that range of mouth widths and we will give you the size of BG those bass will be able to eat.

Ask the pondowner if the bass ate pellets. As mentioned fat bass and no HBG or forage does not make sense. Also one man's fat bass is another man's slim bass. Do you know what Wr or relative weight is for any of these bass you are catching????
Slim male bass have to be present; they are not all females.

Is the owner restocking HBG or BG? Once you start removing LMB they will gradually get harder and harder to catch and leaving behind a few that you probably cannot catch. If the owner does not eat bass it might be best to start over, renovate and restock because it is too difficult to locate or too expensive to restock larger sized BG.
Im gonna see the owner tomm. and get more details such as if he fed or not, but im pretty sure he didnt. I have fished the pond several times this week and havent caught anything but 2-3 lb bass which corresponds with what the owner said about no other fish in the pond. He realizes now that HBG cant reproduce enough to support forage and is going to buy native bluegill. He said he is going to get bigger ones but I dont think he realizes how big he needs, I will discuss that with him also. Draining the pond and starting over is not an option because he just had a huge stone waterfall installed and is loving every minute of it. I did forget to mention that he stocked fatheads when he initially stocked the pond but we both didnt think they could have survived very long with that many bass present. I will just have to fish it some more and talk with the owner some more and let you all know what I come up with. Thanks for all the info. and tips.
In a 1/2 ac pond with HBG and no pellet feeding there should be no more than 10-12 LMB between 15"(2 lb)-17.5"(3 lb) and this is a very high number of bigger bass for 0.5ac. More normal situation if you are lucky would be 6 to 8 bass 2-3 lbs and the rest smaller of 5"-14". Numerous variables affect the size and structure of a fishery - predator, prey and balance.
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