Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking redear habitat

Hey new to the site thanks to my panfish fanatic father-in-law. We both love the format and all things bream.

Several questions going into a restocking of a 2 acre Mississippi pond that is five years removed from 1250 bronze nose and 750 F-10 LMB stocking. The pond is very deep (most 8-12 ft. with lots of 18 ft along dam side). We intend on implementing aggressive feeding program (protein and more protein) and putting more bronzenose (4000) and a good many shellcrackers (750-1000). I have read other blog strings on this site about the difficulty with redear stocking (forage problems, small stocking size, not cooperative with feeding programs, etc.) and have some questions on redear. We think redear are the most fun for entire family and certainly biggest we have dealt with to date, hence the abnormal OCD on all things shellcracker:

1. snails and other redear forage. Does anyone have ideas on preferred varieties of snails or other mollusks for redear in the South Eastern U.S.? FIL lives on historic redear fishery and the lake has lots of mussels and snails. Could we simply figure out a way to transplant forage or should we consider commercial stocking. If so, anyone out there doing mollusk stockings or is that just crazy thought. Seems easy way to make ideal habitat for redear but nothing is easy.

2. More snails and redear forage. Does anyone know what food those hypothetical preferred varieties enjoy consuming. I understand generally that snails like to eat submerged woody material along with aquatic plants. Aside from liming and regular fertilizer would I be planning on putting anything else in system to promote snail/mussel propogation?

3. FIL's historic redear fishery. Any negatives on pulling big redear from lake and transporting into pond along with the fingerlings? I get parasites but the genes are great for 2-3 lb. bruisers.

4. LMB- those F-10's are huge and lurking all over pond. Do we need to rid the lake of these bass as they appear to be mowing down 6-8 inch BG in present condition. Have ability to transplant LMB to nearby lakes so it makes sense to us.

5. structure- What is best bang for buck, whole trees pulled into deep end of lake, or handmade structures, deep water in particular.

6. sand/pea gravel- yea or nea? Fished over both entire life but not sure if redear would prefer deep or shallow placement.


Thanks in advance. Anybody have opinions on maximizing 2 acre pond for quality redear and BG output including adding structure, harvest makeup, etc. etc. its greatly appreciated.

Hooked.

Common pond snails seem to show up in every pond on their own. Ramshorn snails sometimes do, but they are not quite as preferred a food item. I think trying to establish grass shrimp would be a worthy effort. Fingernail clams would also be a good food source to attempt to establish. If you already have Asiatic clams in your area, they have been shown to increase RES growth rates. However, they do have some inherent risks.

Getting RES established in a mature pond such as yours will be a substantial challenge. You may have to rely almost solely on capturing large adults from other bodies of water and transferring them to your pond.

Grass shrimp and fingernail clams. I assume BNBG will benefit from theses as well. thanks much.

Any thoughts on whether a submerged green light would be a nice perk to have.

Also, I understand the oak wood will possibly cause tanin/toxins if whole trees used for cover. Any "trash" tree that could be thinned from property that is suitable cover for sinking in pond. Got some ash, sweetgum, pine, willow and sycamore trees coming off of wooded portion of property and could reuse for cover if possible/appropriate.

Am I to understand that a regular restocking with large RES brood fish will most likely produce a sustainable population than stocking of fingerlings? I bet we end up doing both in any respect but good to know so next April we could very well restock with numerous big females.

Clearly the F-10 LMB will pose a problem moving forward. I guess its 6 lb mono for the bream and 65 lb braid for the LMB. Good problem to have for me since I like catching those "trash" fish as my FIL calls them.

Is bronze nose the same as coppernose bluegill (CNBG) ?

yes Im saying the wrong thing sorry.

Tightline, did you ever get your RES fishery established? If you are still around an update to what you did with stocking, cover and results would be great.