Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Bluegill stocking

Hey everyone I have two questions. 1) My family has a 3 acre channel catfish pond, and I was wondering if there is anyway I can stock bluegills into the pond effectively. The second question is 2) My girlfriend's family has two smaller ponds and most of the bluegill we catch out of the ponds are small like 3-4". The pond was stocked with coppernose bluegills last year or the year before that and has some channel cats and lmb as well. I was just wondering if the small fish I am seeing are babies from the previous years hatch or the fish are just not growing as well as they should. There are some 4-8 lb bass and channel cats in the pond as well.Well I know that information isnt to good but I am new to pond stocking and would appreciate the help.

Welcome to the forum, arrintc.

I doubt 3"-4" CNBG are stockers from last year unless they were the very tiny "rice-sized" fish that some state hatcheries used to provide OR the pond is horribly crowded with fish, especially small fish that would compete with the little CNBG for food. If they went in the year before last, the odds are even more likely that they are offspring. A better answer would be possible if we had that exact stocking info to work with or if I was more familiar with Southern growth rates (right now, I just take what Northern fish will do, then double it and add 30 ).

How big are the CC in your family's pond? Are they the only fish in it? Stocking BG in an established fish population is almost always successful, given the proper sizes and numbers of BG are used. Perhaps we can work something out that utilizes 3"-4" CNBG, so don't do anything foolish to lose that girlfriend.

As far as stocking numbers go in my girlfriends pond: I don't know the exact number of bluegills her dad put in, but I know that the bass that are in the ponds arent from stocking they were put there by fisherman or runoff from the upperpond or something. He never stocked bass. The CC in his ponds were put there from my families pond. Last year or the year before that.
As far as my families pond goes, we only have CC in there. and there are some really big ones that we usually leave for reproducing and some small ones and up that we take out to fillet. In the past we had Talapia in the pond, but they have all died out. I dont know if it was from harsh cold or if the drought we had a few years ago killed them because it killed a lot of the CC. But at this point the pond is well balanced with CC.

If you can put a moderate number (50-60 per acre) of intermediate sized (4"-6") BG in with the CC, I think they would establish a presence. Slightly smaller BG owuld probably need higher numbers because of more successful CC predation (I would guess 100 to 150 BG/acre for 3" - 4" stockers)

Now, the first kicker is that with only CC predation to keep them in check, BG reproduction is likely to outpace losses (unless you practive extensive angling/netting/trapping removal) at some point in the future. Would you be adverse to introducing and additional predator species to help control the BG? LMB are, as Bill Cody describes, the perfect biological BG eliminating machine, but different predators would certainly help.

The second kicker is that large numbers of small BG (after your initial stockers reproduce) will put a damper on CC recruitment in the pond, greatly lowering or even possibly eliminating any CC eggs/fry making it to adulthood. So that's another impact you need to consider.

What would you suggest doing?

What are your goals?

To catch goodsize bream and catfish. I wouldn't mind catching some good size bass as well. I just do not want to ruin the pond because it has been very productive for CCs. They bite pretty good and are of good size.

I think what we may just do is try to make a new pond in an area that used to be a small cattle watering hole. I read that in order to produce trophy bluegills you shouldnt stock with CC because they compete for food too much.

I'm far from an expert, but I strongly believe you can produce trophy bluegills in the presence of channel cats. They may actually have been the cause of my trophy bluegill.

I have a half-acre pond that had a fair number of trophy size (15-16 lb.) channel catfish. At the same time I had a lot of bluegill in the 8-10 inch range, with a fair number up to 11 inches. I had lots of stunted large mouth bass.

Last year I got rid of most of the big catfish. It will be interesting to see what happens this year and over the next couple of years to my bluegill population.

I put in 4-6 inch catfish last spring. Hopefully I can harvest some of them this year at 1-2 lbs., and still have my trophy bluegill.

Good luck,
Ken

Ken, I'm with you on this one.
I have addressed this subject before, believing our abundant 12-14 lb class CC are the primary reason for our big blue gill.
Maybe we should back off from removing our big CC.

Very seldom catch a LMB under 12-14 inches or BG under 5 inches.
George

So if I was going to stock some intermediate bluegill from an overpopulated pond into the 3 acre CC pond, how many should I put in to show a presence of bluegills.

I'll stick with my recommended numbers above.

The standard answer for stocking 3-5in BG into a existing average population is right where Theo said - 60 to 125 per acre. If the new stockers are at the top of the range then 60 if at the small end of the range 125. This is of course dependant on the condition of your pond population.

In some situations the bluegill have not established at rates of 250/acre. Get a handle on how many bass you have in the lake. If high numbers a percentage of the bluegil will not make it after a few days. Also couple this with large channel cats and I think you might have to go with a higher number than suggested. Also ask hatchery what they weigh, I do not suggest stocking until at least 50 lbs/1,000 and better at 75 lbs/1,000. Good Luck!

BTW George is there any species you can't catch on the fly?

Not that I can think of Greg - at least not in our ponds...
I'll shame you guys until you try it - you'll like it...

Heck George I'm a self taught fly fisherman. We I moved to our house in 2000 the pond was in bad shape not that great of fishing. I had some catfish escape from my cage b/c a turtle chewed a hole. Well they got about 3 lbs quickly with feeding. When I had a free moment my best time fishing ws not for bass but for these cats. With any cheap fly that sinks about the same rate as a pellet they woudl nail it. Down about 5 feet and whame catfsih on the fly , I was doing circles in my belly boat. I also got lucky and hooked a grass carp, he broke me off about 4 mins into the fight but what a rush. I get to fish about three times a year now from lack of time but will start again soon with Wyatt and the fly rod will not be far behind the spin cast reel on his learnign curve.

Wyatt will your fishin' buddy for sure.
Have you weighed him lately...

With CC only (and BG) in the pond the #s Theo and I provided are enough. Greg was talking about a pond with an existing LMB population in an over crowded situation.

ok thanks guys, I'll let you know what we end up doing.