Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking what happened to all greenies?

One of my favorite catfish ponds was also stocked with green sunfish.It was so easy to catch these fish, it could even be done with a bare hook. They were all small, from 2-4 inches but there were hundreds of them. Then someone stocked 20 LMB I know it was 20 because that someone was me. The next year the bass fishing was good. The year after that there was so many small LMB you could catch them off just a bare hook. I figured this was just a dissaster. It seemed so right in the beginning, Ireally thought the greenies would keep the LMB under control. Now you cannot even catch a greenie, the bass pop has leveled off some. Now it is mostly very healthy looking 1 1/2 to 2 pound bass with the seldom 3 pounder. Are the greenies still there, do I need to add bg , how could that have happened to so many green sunfish. Could they have been hybrids, which dont reproduce as much ?

How big is this pond? LMB are absolutely amazing predators. They can quickly control an overpopulated species.

I have heard mixed reports on the spawning potential of green sunfish. Most first hand accounts indicate they do not spawn as prolifically as BG. Also the adults are smaller. These two factors would lead me to believe a healthy LMB population can really limit the GSf population, perhaps even eliminate it in time. That is generally considered a good thing. Therefore the safe bet is to add some adult BG.

It also sounds like it may be time to remove some adult LMB.

Good Luck

Classic GSF control situation, one everyone ought to bookmark to refer to whenever the owner of a GSF infested pond asks "Do I have to renovate?"

As your experience has shown, jw, LMB will eat and outcompete GSF in most ponds. It sounds like the LMB have (virtually) eliminated the GSF and the only small fish the large LMB have left to eat are there own young. If you want to concentrate on bass or balanced fishing in this pond, stocking (adult) BG would be the thing to do. BG produce enough spawn, more than GSF can, to provide forage for the LMB and a sustainable population for themselves.

If you want to continue to use it primarily for catfishing, you could stock more cats (large enough to escape bass predation) and feed them. I think that in addition to the cats you stock, it will continue to have a stunted bass population with a couple/few lunkers at the top of the foodchain. Maybe the larger cats will eat some of the smaller bass as well.

This all makes sense but then why do they sell GSF? Could the fact I stocked 20 adalt bass be part of the reason they over populated so quickly?

JW, I have never heard of anyone either purposely buying or selling green sunfish. In my case, I'm pretty sure they came inadvertently mixed with my bluegill stockers.

JW - 20 bass the size you stocked could easily eat 160 pounds of GSF per year. Keep in mind that the catfish will also be eating a bunch of greenies per year. There are around 64 3" GSF/lb and if 4" long 30 per pound. This calculates to be 4,800 - 10,240 GSF 3"-4" long eaten by your 20 bass per year. No wonder the greenies dissappeared.

I assume you mean bass overpopulated. Once the bass thinned down the GSF a high percent of the bass fry survived due to low numbers of GSF. If you only have basically larger bass (14"-18") present they pretty much ignore fish smaller than 1"-1.5". HIgh survival of juvenile bass quickly leads to overabundance.

I have a hatchery near me that sells GSF. He sell a fair number to universities for eye research. There is something special about their eye.

So if this pond had been stocked with BG would this have happened, or would the results have been more like I was hoping for when I stocked the bass?

Left alone together (LMB & BG), the LMB will usually overpopulate and stunt. BUT there will still be BG left, typically very large and very small ones.

Did that answer your question, jw?

yes , thank you

Dave, I'm betting you are old enough to remember Back in the day, GSF (a.k.a. goggle-eye) were often sold as baitfish. They were the ultimate trot-line fish, Huge Flatheads couldn't resist (by the way, where has Big_Pond been?) It's often stated here that GSF are preferred by LMB too for their shape...but, I'm pretty sure they like the "soft" body for swallowing. Maybe we're dealing with different varieties of GSF, but the ones I catch are always "squishy"

Eastland, to this day, I still think Green sunfish are a beautiful fish. Green sunfish were plentiful and were good kid magnets. We used them whole and for cut bait. Of course, in those days, before I got PB educated, they were perch or bream.

BTW, I still love rock bass.