Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Size OK?

New pond stocked Sept. '06 with everything at the same time- all fingerlings. Here are the approximate sizes now:

LMB 13-15"
BG 4"
CC 8"

How do these look? The LMB seem to be larger relative to the others but I am not a fisheries expert.

I would guess you are not feeding (much) if the CC have grown less than the bass, but it's hard to make any inferences from length data only. Bass growing more than BG would be considered normal if the LMB have enough to eat.

How big is the pond and how many of each species did you stock?
What size were they at the time of stocking?
What are the condition (fat, skinny, any weights?) of the three species?
What is the relative abundance, based on fishing and/or observation, of each?

The pond is 2 acres and I stocked 200LMB, 700BG, 200CC and 2000FHM. They were all fingerlings. I put another 2000 FHM in May of this year. The bass are fat and fairly numerous. The BG anc CC seem a little small and thin-just my guess. Both LMB and BG have spawned and there is an abundance of minnows.

I also stocked 8 grass carp to eat the FA when the water was really clear. I would say the water clarity is 2-3 feet at most now so there seems to alot of nutients now. FA is gone.

I`ve added 3 grass carp to my 1 acre pond and noticed the clarity went away, as if the grass carp`s digestion of the plant matter caused a nice olive tint to the water? that was last august, they did a good jog of fixing my clear water problems. it was interestingf to see in the middle of august.

ML, any sign of the fathead minnows? Sounds like the LMB are getting plenty to eat but the BG and CC aren't. One of the best measurements of a ponds "performance" is to keep length and weight measurements to determine relative weight. Probably should start keeping records.

Any more experts opinions (I'm just a keyboard monkey).

I only fish it once in a while and next time I will measure and weigh now that I found a chart to use. There are FHM present. I am wondering if I should add more this fall or introduce GSH for good measure? Thanks for the replies-what a great website!

FHM are usualy just considered a snack for an established LMB pond. The GSH would not be a bad idea though (check with andersons fish farm). They grow large enough to avoid smaller LMB predation and they provide an adequate meal for LMB.

I'm not an expert on when to start harvesting LMB but if you get some measurements you will be able to tell if it's time to start removing some LMB of certain sizes. In my pond if they are underweight or below 12 inches I remove them. LMB Below 12 inches are overcrowded in my pond.

The BG and CC can be fed using floating pellets. I use Purina Game Fish Chow. It works great in my pond. I have BG, HBG, a couple LMB, and some CC come to eat every day. It seems like each time I feed more fish show up. By far my feeding program is the best thing I have done for my pond. It is pretty cheap and puts weight on the fish quickly.

The pond was stocked almost 2 years ago and the LMB seem to be doing well. My intention was to always be catch and release except for the CC. The BG have spawned ( though they seem a little small). I caught some LMB minnows in a trap so they have spawned. As soon as dog days end and I start fishing it again I will measure and weigh what I catch.

Is there any drawback to stocking GSH in a catch and release pond? If you do not take any BG or LMB out can the balance get out of whack from the initial stocking?

Again I'm not an expert but more often than not LMB overpopulate a pond and overeat the food chain. I have not had a problem with too many BG yet. Probably because I have had too many bass feeding on them for the past 20 years. I refused to remove any LMB from my pond for years. I was always an avid catch and release angler until I realized what it was doing to my pond. All the LMB were starving and stunted. I started to remove some LMB over the past 2 years. I removed 100+ LMB from my pond the result was increased length and weight. The fishing has never been better. Yes, a pond can and in my experience usualy does become unbalanced a few years after the initial stocking.

I'm not telling you that this is the best option for your pond. In fact if they are growing I would leave them alone but sooner or later they will probably have to be thinned out; both the BG and the LMB.

I asked about the drawbacks of GSH a while back and there were only 2 that I recall

1. they steal bait from hooks.
2. They need to be restocked every 3-5 years. (LMB eat them like crazy)

Thanks. I will watch it to see how they grow. There is a 30 acre pond at out hunt club that is overrun with little bass. I figured that came to be by people removing bass and not BG. I was planning on adding 2000 FHM twice a year to keep a good forage base. I will get some GSH as well. The money I spend on minnows and fish food is nothing compared to what I have spent building the pond and trying to correct a leak.

The usual reason for being overrun with small bass is reluctance to harvest/eliminate them. Catch and release might work in public lakes but not in smaller bodies of water. Not big enough to keep should become coon food or?

MLB,

Just for comparison puposes from a similar situation, below are my results thus far.

2.5 acre pond in Indiana. Sept. 06' stocked fingerling 1500 BG, 400 RES, 10 lbs. FHM. May 07' stocked another 20 lbs FHM and started feeding program (twice per day). Sept. 07' stocked 100 9"-11" LMB. Currently, LMB are 11"-16", originally stocked BG are 7"-8", originally stocked RES are an impressive 9.5". 90% of the millions of FHM have been eaten.

I recommend starting a feeding program immediately. They could have been twice that size by now.

My guess is that you have plenty of larger bluegill that you just haven't seen yet. If the bass are looking healthy and givin the young age of the pond, I'll bet all is well.

Feeding would be a great supplement to the CC and BG. I just feed the cheap floating catfish feed and it works great.