Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations help with my fish balance

I pulled a few seines through my recently acquired pond (less than 2 acres) and found mostly bluegill and largemouth bass. The BG range in size from 0 to 8 inches, with most of them falling in the smaller half and very few in the larger half of the spectrum. The LMB are all less than 12 inches and there are only few of them. I have had about 2 times the number of BG than LMB. Does this population sound OK, do I just need to wait for the bass to grow or does this type of population need some kind of corrective stocking? This is all very new to me and I think I have just enough knowledge to be my own worst enemy. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hey, mermaid, welcome to the Pond Boss Forum! Great to have you here!

I'm new enough to the whole pond management biz that I don't know the answer to your question, but there are many here who will have solid guidance for you.

It may help to know a few things before suggestions can be made.

How old is the pond?
Do you know when it was stocked?
How deep is the pond?
What sort of structure is in it?
Do you know if there are any feeder species present (i.e., shiners, fatheads, etc)?
Are there other types of fish in the pond?

One thing I've learned is that when seining, many fish will simply swim down under the net as it passes over and avoid being caught. If you have places where the seine couldn't reach, you could have missed a lot of fish, particularly the bigger, smarter fish, so the sample you got may not be truly representative.

Have you done any sort of fishing survey on the pond? Did you catch anything bigger than what came up in the seine?

As I said, there are lot of things that could impact what you saw, and it could be that, in fact, you just have a lot of small fish that need a corrective action plan to get them growing.

Hang tight and wait for more responses, but try to give us some more info so we can help you with relevant ideas.

Mermaid, Welcome to the forum!!!

What area of the Ozarks are you in? If the southern parts, our water fertility is pretty poor and most ponds can only hold half the fish more northern Missouri ponds can support.

Seining is only a small part of the way to sample a pond unless you can cover the entire pond in a single pass with no obstructions.

My first thought is you are heavily overpopulated with Bass, but if your pond was newly stocked, especiallynif done by the state, this could be normal still. Bluegill should be stocked at a 10:1 rate of the bass. Far more small fish is expected since each large female lays 1000's of eggs. Bass like food about on quarter their own size so when you seined, if you had lots of Blue Gill in the 3-5 inch range as well as the other sizes you mentioned your Bass may not be overpopulated. More accurate surveys will provide a better sense of your fish balance and what if anything may be needed.

I would try to fish the pond to see if there are larger bass in there too. Running a seine through with even one end fully in the water will let thousands of fish escape...your larger fish are the smarter ones also and know how to avoid a seine.

You may want to consider attending the Pond Boss Conference next April at Big Cedar Lodge just south of Branson if you want to really learn a lot about pond management and what to look for. Most people are under the very false impression that you can just dig a hole and through fish in and nature will manage it. We're glad you realize that is far from the reality.

Thanks for the info so far!! It is all very interesting to read what others have done. It definitly seems more complicated than I thought, I am just getting more questions the more I read, but that's good.....right?

As far as I know, the pond is about 10+ years old and it's about 8 feet deep. The previous owner did say that they have not stocked it in many years, except maybe a few channal cats here and there which he more htan likely fished out already. He did also mention an occasional larger than 12 inch bass as well as an ocasional 8 inch BG but that's it. Hope that info helps, and thanks again.

First here is some info to read from the archives

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92492#Post92492

Seining is only a part of the data set. Alone it can give the wrong answer. After you read the archive info then read this on how to interpret seine data (taken correctly). It shows based on Swingle techniques/studies the interelationship of common populations (BG to LMB for example).

http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p1428.pdf


see page 15-16 on mgt and balance.

With that sized LMB and BG in the pond, I'm assuming the LMB are fat and happy and not skinny? If they are skinny (or look like their head is too big for their body) then you have a different set of dynamics to work on.

There is a chart in the archives on Relative Weights. It tells you if a fish is "X" inches, it should weigh "X" pounds and ounces. It's a very valuable tool for fish management. If you could, let us know if the LMB are under or over WR (relative weight).

To Esshup - they appear to be normal weight, no big heads or caving in bellies

In that case, I'll bet there are bigger ones in there. Maybe they've been educated and know what a hook is.

I have a pond that is about 2.5 acers. This pond used to be a place that you could catch several fish in an hour and they would all be 1 pound or over. Now this pond is way overpopulated. I can go and catch 30 bass in 1 hour but none of them will even make a pound. I have taken out over 50 fish but they still are all small. I NEED HElP. I WANT MY POND BACK THE WAY IT USED TO BE.

Max, keep fishing and culling until they get hard to catch. You have a typical bass heavy pond. Too small to keep is fine on public lakes but ruins ponds.

That also means that you don't have a lot of smaller bluegills. Your future forage base is eaten before it gets a chance to grow and spawn.

Keep hammering the bass.