Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Adding Yellow Perch as Forage - good idea ??

I have Bluegill in my 1/2 acre pond that I only have to harvest 25-30 out every 3 years - the LMB seem to keep them in check pretty well. Wondered if adding yellow perch as a second forage fish would be a good idea ? The LMB seem to be healthy - but not really fat or getting really big in a reasonable a time frame. Thought maybe some more forage would help.

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Have you checked the relative weights on your LMB? In smaller ponds, the biggest issue with LMB tends to be there being too many of them... Realize that even in a highly fertile pond, a half acre pond can support about 50 acres of LMB. That doesn't equate to very many LMB that are in a quality size range. You may want to do some weight and length measurements and see where they are relative weight wise. I think you will find they are low in the relative weight department as they are likely starved because there are too many of them. If you are trying to grow larger LMB, your best option is going to be removing a good number of them. You can then look into adding additional forage/forage species.

CJ points you in the right path. You likely have too many LMB over eating the food source (BG) while getting enough food to live but not getting enough food to grow. Reducing bass numbers will provide more food for remaining bass. It may take a significant reduction in bass to allow the BG to increase in density over the next few years. I would focus on reducing the larger older bass who are eating the larger close to brooder size BG. Once the predation pressure decreases more BG will survive resulting in more breeder BG. Then adjust numbers to maintain your desired balance of predator / prey.

No- have not done any relative weight studies. Everything I have done is by visual as far as numbers. The pond is pretty clear (well it was before I stocked grass carp)and I am pretty much able to see everything that is in there. When BG numbers reach approx. 75 - I take out 25-30 - done that a few times in 13 years. The LMB I have never taken out as I have never seen more than 30-40 in the pond at any given time.

I am not feeding pellets - but throw in some leftover meat scraps now and then. I do raise crawdads in a separate pond and put around 40 every year in the 1/2 acre pond.

Did you mean a I/2 acre pond would support 50 lbs of LMB- not 50 acres ??

Reducing bass number will result in larger bass and increasing their number will result in generally smaller bass. Feeding the BG pellets will result in more and larger BG for harvest possibly harvesting 25 every two years instead of three. Yes he meant 50 lbs of LMB but this is for a pond with a decent plankton bloom with average water clarity of 20"-28". In your clear water pond expect total bass pounds to be closer to 28-35 lbs depending on water carity.