Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Newbie what I have, what I want! Help!

I have a 2 acer pond built in 04, stocked in 05 by Georgia dnr.
Fish stocked were 500 bg, 100 re, 100 lmb, 100 cc!
My goal was big bg, so I was told to have little to no
Cover and leave bass in wich I did! I started a feeding
Program in 05 and have maintained to date! The bg reached
Over a pound in size with in 4 years and the fishing was awsome!
I could fish for a hour and harvest 15 pound bg! I would usually
Take out 50 to 100 bg that size per year and return all bass! So I
Was like yea I got a awsome blue gill pond! Now the problem,
In the past 3 years the amount of bg caught have dwindled
But the size has increased! It ain't unordinary to catch bg
Close to 2 lbs! But you may only catch 4 or 5 per day
When I use to catch 4 in 10 minutes! Bass heavy is what
You may think as do I, but another problem! The bass I catch are
Fat and happy! All of them from 8 to 16 inches are fat as mudd!
I have a bait trap I put out to anylise the bg and I catch
Dozens 1 to 2" long but it goes from that to 1.5 to 2 lbs! Nothing
In-between! All the shellcracker ar huge as well
But I release them unless they gut hooked and bleeding
Wich is rare! Ok to the question, the size bg is exactly
What I want! I just want more of them! ( catch 10 or 15 when I want in short
Order) am I being greedy or is the lack of numbers
A byproduct of my goal! Thanks for your input!

50-100 of the largest BG in the pond is a LOT to remove every year, especially given your low initial stocking numbers. You're Bass heavy which promotes the growth of bigger BG, and the declining numbers but bigger size of the BG also makes me think that the LMB and CC, together with your harvest strategy, has reduced the population of BG significantly.

I would lose the CC and try and stock more, and larger, BG.

Yea, I have since learned that the initial stocking
Of 500 bg was low for 2 acres! I am concidering
Stocking in more 5 to 6 " bg, but not sure of the amount
I was thinking maby 200! Should I add some cover or
Remove some bass or all the above?

I think that you, combined with the LMB and CC in the pond are harvesting too many BG. Before you stock more BG, I'd work at removing LMB larger than 14". A LMB will eat something 1/4 to 1/3 it's body length, so a 16" LMB could eat a 5" BG. If you stock more 5"-6" BG, you don't want your LMB eating them.

Yes, you achieved your goals, but now you should direct a little bit of time to managing your LMB and CC population to help sustain your fantastic BG fishery.