Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Stocking LMB

I am looking for suggestions for adding LMB to my pond, which is about 1/2 acre runoff pond with well if needed. The pond was built last May and filled during the summer. I am located near Memphis TN. My goal is to eventually have big bluegill. The pond currently has less than 10 mature native BG that were stocked late summer and the product of what appears to be 1 spawn. I am currently evaluating the number of small BG. All of them that I have trapped are around 1 inch long and look healthy. I have thrown a small amount of feed the past 2 afternoons and had a small amount of feeding both times. I will continue to feed. There is also a big population of snails in the pond, so I would like to stock some RES. I am able to get 3" LMB and 1-3" RES to stock now. I know bigger LMB (6-8") could knock down the number of BG faster but I wonder if the RES would also be at risk. How many 3" LMB and fingerling RES should I add now? Should I add a few bigger LMB also or just manually remove and cull/grade the BG?

Welcome Bigg E! You are in TN so the southern pond owners can chime in on what works for them.

My question would be, what are your plans for forage and building a forage base? The snails will be gone once the RES are big enough to eat them and then the LMB (and smaller fish) will need something to eat.

Perhaps there is a stocking plan that includes only BG, RES and LMB without any other forage but I'm not sure how that would work as it hasn't come up before that I can recall.

Are you allowed tilapia in TN?

Hey BiggE welcome to the PBF....

You seem to be on the right track now with the BG... I would wait till fall on the bass let your BG do their thing for the summer... don't worry you won't have to get rid of any of them once you add bass to the equation... they will hammer them pretty hard. I would add the RES now. I only put 75 RES in my one acre pond and they did great cleaning it up but they were bigger. So IMO you could put 150 RES in there maybe 200 and let them do their thing! I would then add the bass in the fall I would not put more than 50 or so in the pond. Remember a pond your size can really only handle about 50 pounds of predator fish and before you know it your bass will be pushing a pound each. If your goal is big BG only and you don't care about how big your bass are then once they start it get over 15 inches I would take them out and leave all the bass 14 and under they will control your smaller BG and can't eat your bigger ones.

Lets see what others have to say I am no expert by any means just giving you my OP!

Good Luck and keep us posted
RC

Thanks for the response guys.

canyoncreek, BG, RES and LMB is a normal stocking plan in the south. The RES and BG feed on natural forage and I plan to feed pellets. The LMB feed on the BG and RES spawn. I am sure we allowed tilapia in TN, as the state stocks them in some of the ponds and lakes near me for FA control and forage at times.

RC51, thanks for the suggestions. I guess I am just worried about the BG numbers getting out of control if I wait until fall to stock LMB. Maybe I need to stop worrying so much!

Oh no I would not worry about that.... Your bass will catch that up in a hurry I would think! It's amazing how much they can eat once they get to be 7 to 10 inches long. Remember too a bass can eat something 1/3 it's length. So a 9 inch bass will try and can sometimes eat a 3 inch BG... I know it's sounds crazy right but they don't call them LARGE MOUTHS for no reason! Hey good luck and keep us posted....

RC

Agreed about not worrying about the BG getting out of control once the LMB are stocked. With a goal of large BG, I would stock 250 BG and 250 RES at 2"-4" length this Spring, and stock 50-75 3"-6" LMB this Fall. Ask the place where you get the BG if they are feed trained. Stocking feed trained BG will help you achieve your goal faster.

Keep feeding the BG a good food, and next year once the BG/RES are sexually mature remove the majority of the females that you catch. Once the LMB reach 14"-15" remove any that are bigger than that.

Ask the place where you get the LMB from whether they are feed trained or not, as you do NOT want feed trained LMB.

Only have a few piles of cover in the pond, that will attract the fish to make fishing easier, but won't be so much so that it allows a safe haven for the YOY fish. I wouldn't recommend putting the standard 20% of the surface area of the pond amount of cover in it.

esshup, thanks for the reply. I already have the product of at least 1 BG spawn in my pond (from a couple pair of BG that were added last summer). I am not sure how many are there, but the BG I have seen are all around 1". I want to add RES now and was wondering if I should add 3" LMB now or not.

I wouldn't add the LMB now, because what you will probably get are the runts left over from last year if you stock small ones now. If you add them this Fall, or at least in June you should get better stock.

I would also think about adding more BG from a different source to add to the gene pool.

I never thought about the bass being runts. I had already planned to introduce some different genetics for the bluegill also. Thanks for the advice.