Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations When to harvast?

My pond is about 2.5 years old. It is 1/3 acre and is 15 ft in the middle with an average depth of around 7 ft. I stocked 175 CBG, 175 HBG, 100 RES, and 5 lbs of FHM about 2 years ago. I followed up 6 months after that with 50 LMB. Before my LMB grew to about 12 inches I could catch all the perch I wanted, but now they are very hard to catch. I am starting to wonder if I put too many bass in the pond and they are eating all of my perch. My pond was pretty muddy for the last year and I am clearing the water up as I speak with Alum. My visibility is 18 inches and I am planning on getting visibility to around 30 inches. Should I be concerned with the bass eating everything up when they can actually see better in the clearer water. My minnow population is awesome. Everywhere I look around the edges of the pond are minnows of all sizes. I also have some bullheads in the pond that apparently got in there by birds. Now that I have rambled for a while, My question is when and what fish should I start keeping when I catch them.I have kept and ate 10 nice HBG that I caught
about 2 months ago that were about 9 inches long. I discard of ever bullhead that I catch and bring to a canal. Should I start keeping bass that I catch or let them go for a while and should I keep every perch that I catch. As I walk around the pond, I don't see baby perch swimming like I did in the past, so I don't know how many are in there still. There are larger HBG that eat commercial food every morning, but nothing like it used to be, before the bull LMB are getting bigger.I have noticed that some of the LMB I catch seem to be on the skinny size, but others seem nice and healthy. Please help with any suggestions.

Sounds like you are hitting the proverbial bass heavy stage. Escort every bass 13 inches and under to the frying pan or toss them on the bank or ?. They can easily over run their food supply. As a matter of fact, you are hitting the "average Texas pond" stage. We've heard so much about the catch and release mantra that we ruin our small ponds. Bass must be harvested or the predator/prey ratio quickly gets out of whack. Harvest only the HBG and don't mess with the CNBG. The CNBG are your only hope and you may not have stocked enough in the beginning.

BTW, I have the same problem in a 1 acre and 1.5 acre pond. I have recently eliminated about 20 bass and have restocked about 1,000 BG/CNBG of various sizes. If I lived by it, I could be more proactive, but it is turning into work. I generally feel that if small bass are pretty easy to catch, I probably have too many.

dbw, what are your goals for managing the pond? DD has given real good advice if you are interested in maximizing bass size.

My goals are for me and my boys to go out on any given day and catch fish. I would like to catch perch at all times, but also a few bass when I decide to. Right now it is hard to catch anything. I stocked 50 2-3inch bass about 1 year after my HBG and CBG and RES. Could I be wrong in saying that maybe the perch ate a lot of my baby bass I put in since it is hard to catch anything. I guess I just need to really start paying attention on the condition of the fish I catch to determine what I need to harvest. I guess if the bass are skinny take them out and if the perch are skinny feed them more or take some out.