Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking 50 year old 2 acre pond. Trophy Bass

I have an old farm pond in North Carolina with bass and bluegill. There are plenty of small bass, but only the occasional monster. As a tournament bass fisherman, I only get excited about fish over 2.5 lbs. I have occasionally brought fish from the lakes (if they are over 3lbs and healthy looking) but when caught again, many of them look thin. Please help. I do not want to do anything that will hurt the fishing. Some of my actions and questions are as follows.

1. The water is somewhat clear, should I consider fertilizing?
2. I have trapped a few crawfish and chubs from creeks and put them in there. A local baitshop has "shiners" but was unsure if they were golden shiners. Would stocking shiners help, or could they "take over" the pond? I've heard that fathead minnows in an existing pond are almost useless.
3. I made a couple of structures to put in there, since the fish have very few obstacles as ambush points.
4. I know that I should harvest some small bass, but I hate doing that. I will if it is imperative.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to Pond Boss! I don't have all your answers, but can tell you that if you have a lot of small to medium sized LMB (large mouth bass), you probably need to remove a bunch if you want some lunkers in your pond.

Fertilization may be in your future as it will help you provide a food source for fry to feed on and grow. Let a real expert chime in on that issue.

Few on this forum would advise that you stock wild fish into your pond and I suspect no one here would stock from a bait shop - too many horror stories of that load of shiners actually containing several unwanted species that will dominate your pond in a very detrimental way. Source your forage fish from a credible seller, of which we have plenty on the forum.

Fatheads are probably a total waste with a pond full of hungry fish - they'd likely be gone the same day you put them in. BG (Bluegill) are a key forage base for LMB, so do things that will encourage them to take off on top of adding shiners and other good forage. Remember, too, that LMB need approximately 10 pounds of forage to add one pound of body weight, so it needs to be plentiful if you are aiming for big bass.

Structure is a good thing, but a general rule of thumb is to only have about 20% of your water occupied with it. Place structure items in relation to one another at varying depths to allow the fish "highways" to move from one depth zone to another as their needs change.

Just a few thoughts to get you started till the knowledgeable folks come along.

Again, welcome. And consider posting some pics of your place.

Welcome to the forum! As Todd said, you need to remove bass. As most modern day bass anglers are all about C&R, keeping large numbers of bass can be almost painfull, however it has to be done. As Todd said, it takes about 10 pounds of forage to grow 1 pound of bass. Also, 1 acre in a typical pond supports between 50-100 pounds of bass. So, removing smaller bass opens up that biomass to allow the remaining bass to grow bigger. There are several hatcheries in NC that you can purchase golden shiners, bluegill and redear sunfish to rebuild your food chain as you begin removing bass. Basically I'd remove any bass caught under 12". You won't catch them all. Keep a log of the length and weight of all bass caught. Then calculate their relative weights. You should begin to see an improvement... Any idea what species are in the pond? Crappies, catfish, etc or just bass and bluegill?

Just bass and bluegill.

BTW, thank you guys for the help! I'm going to try to find a hatchery that isn't too far away. I'll also start trying to harvest some smaller bass. The fertilization problem is still there. Not sure if I will hurt or help the pond, and the agriculture people you talk to contradict themselves.

Harvesting small bass is imperative to growing bigger bass. Ponds are ruined by catch and release and too small to keep. The small bass eat the small forage before it gets large enough to feed the bigger predators.

However, that is a pretty simplistic statement. You need to keep a log to find the real status of the pond.

You're welcome, any time! That is what this forum is for...


Before you go stocking more forage, take the bass out. At least take a good chunk of the needed bass out. You almost won't be able to harvest too many in your situation, so yank as many as you can out!


If you still have questions about the fertility of your pond and how to fertilize it if needed feel free to ask... Also, do a forum search. There are many good threads on the forum about this exact subject to help you along.

I'm not a big fan of ponds that are solely bass and bluegill. I like having more diversity than that.

I agree that the first order of business is removing bass from the pond. It is most likely that the cause of large numbers of small bass is overpopulation of bass. When this happens you usually have enormous bluegill in the pond. When bass are stunted at a certain size they give bluegill a chance to "grow to freedom". Once the gill hits a certain size they are no longer forage for any bass in the pond. I would recommend removing every large male gill that you catch. Smaller males will breed just as well and they take up less resources in the pond.

While you are getting your bass and bluegill population in order you should also be installing structure and vegetation that will support the forage fish that you need to add to the pond. Rock piles, cinder blocks, corkscrew eelgrass, pondweed and what not all have their place.

I would also consider another option. I know that I don't have the resources to buy large numbers of enormous forage fish. I would probably set up a grow out system for forage fish. I would a large number of small fish and grow them to the right size myself.

If you have the correct structure all of these forage species are great in your area:

Bluntnose minnows
Golden shiners
Lake chubsuckers
Mississippi Grass Shrimp
Papershell Crayfish

I would also consider stocking tilapia during the first spring after you get your fish population down to where you want it (if legal in your state?). Don't be afraid to stock them on the high end of the density scale. Tilapia add pounds and pounds and pounds of forage to your pond. This will give your bass more to eat and take some of the predation off of the bluegill. Then when you tilapia die off in the fall your bass will have plenty of bluegill to eat.

You may also want to stock a small number of larger redear sunfish to try to get a small population in place for snail control duty.

This is the hardest order to do things in LOL. Whenever I plan out what I would stock in a pond in a certain climate I always always always add the bluegill and bass LAST. Here the pond is full of them and there are no other forage species in the water yet LOL.

Bugs, have you ever been able to get species like bluntnose to establish in even a pond with a mild over crowding of LMB? I never have, I can't get them to establish in ponds with LMB, except in rare situations. Those involve having he bluntnose well established before the LMB are ever stocked, not trying to establish them with a LMB crowding issue.

I'd hate for the original poster to put in so much work trying to get all these forage species established in his pond when his efforts would be futile. Bluntnose minnows and LMB don't work in my experience except in very large ponds with extensive rocky shallow areas which the original poster's pond doesn't have. Have you had a different experience with bluntnose minnows? Not many forum members on here have any experience with non traditional forage species, so any added insight you may have would be helpful.

Up until a few years ago I had no experience with lake chubsuckers and am still learning with them. Have you had them in any ponds you manage? Could you share your experiences with them? What is your source for them, since Todd Overton no longer sells them, I am not aware of any hatcheries that sell them for pond stocking purposes anymore.

1. Shooter: how big is the pond? Any submerged vegetation in summer? How deep can you see a white coffee cup or Cool Whip lid in the water? Check it.
2. Bugs; I am with CJ's philosophy. Where do propose shooter get his bluntnose minnows, lake chubsuckers and even papershell crayfish? They are as scarse as hens teeth to buy from fish farms. Plus bluntnose minnows will not last long with reproducing LMB as predators. At least I've never seen it happen in a pond. A vegetated lake with diversified forage- maybe? Papershell crays are good but not readily available to most pondowners.

The pond is probably between 1.5 and 1.75 acres. There isn't alot of vegetation and it is fairly clear. I haven't tried the white cup test, I can let you know. I'm going to check into fertilizer so any help there would be appreciated.

well, possibly close to 2 acres as that's what I estimated it at the other night, lol.

Use this site to determine pond size: http://www.acme.com/planimeter/

According to that site, 1.6 acres