Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Small Bass Population

I have a 2 acre pond in Texas originally stocked in 2011 fall, bass came in spring. I've attached the stocking numbers. The bass I've been catching are mostly underweight and some look in bad shape. So this year Is the first year I've started taking out smaller bass at a rate of 10 lbs per acre. The channel cats are in great shape and healthy and the Sunfish are also great size and healthy.

There is a creek on the property that doesn't feed into the pond, I've been using a trap to catch Sunfish and crawfish in the creek and transport them to the pond for extra forage. The only question I have is if the Sunfish are green Sunfish (I've attached 2 pics) is it worth adding them or may I only hurt the Sunfish population.

I'm basically trying to do anything I can to get the Bass to a healthy weight level. So if anyone has any other tips let me know.

Thanks

Also have thought about stocking threadfin shad but they are expensive so it may be a while.

Looks kinda like green sunfish to me. There are mixed opinions on GSF. I have a 1/4 acre forage pond that is loaded with them. I often run a seine through and add fish to my larger pond. I don't hesitate to add GSF and I seldom catch one. They only spawn annually and BG/CNBG have a rolling spawn. They don't stop until late Fall.

GSF are also more fusiform and a perfect LMB food.

Actually I'm a GSF fan. They're scrappy. If you tied a 6 inch GSG tail to tail with a 6 inch BG/CNBG, the GSF would drown the other.

Your stocking seems predator heavy to me. I call the fish pictured gsf also. I catch one in my pond once in a while, no biggie. With your predator base, I agree with DD1 on them being a problem for you. To get your bass weight up, I bet you have to do more than stock a few greenies from the creek though. Culling Lm is a good first step. Let's see what the other TX guys think. I'm a long way from you and from being an expert!

There are myriad threads that deal with your problem from all over the southern part of the country--do some digging in the archives and you'll find some really specific, useful information.

To sum up most of them--anything you do is voiding into the gale until you reduce the bass population--dramatically. I'd remove every bass you catch until your fish start to fatten up, it may be as much as 20-40lbs/acre depending on how bass heavy you are. Start a feeding program for BG in the meantime. Adding adult BG well beyond the size that your LMB can consume will help--if you have a feeding program going. Those greenies won't hurt anything, as DD1 mentioned, but they won't help anything either unless you get the bass population under control.

You might need to remove some of your CC...how many are left and how large are they?

Whatever you do, don't waste your money adding TFS to your current pond--they'll be gone in no time and you'll have nothing to show for the considerable expense.

Ditto, remove at least 20 and try to remove 30+ pounds of LMB per surface acre along with any CC over 3#. You are predator heavy and won't see the results of removing them for a few years.

I agree with the above. Reduce LMB, catch and don't release any CC over 2#s. I would stop adding the GSF. GSF don't bring as much to the table as the CNBG.

Okay thanks, I'll plan on removing LMBs and big CC the only concern I had with the green Sunfish was if they can spawn with bluegill. Since the bluegill and red ear can reproduce many more times In a year I didn't want the GSF to spawn with them and create a hybrid that was less efficient as the Bluegill and red ear.

Yes, Green Sunfish will cross breed with Bluegills and Redear Sunfish.

Offspring won't reproduce as much as the parents will.

Redear typically only spawn once a year anyway. In a LMB/RES only pond, RES won't reproduce enough to keep LMB relative weights near 100. In other words, RES won't produce enough food to sustain a good population of LMB and you will have stunted LMB.

So with that being said that was my main concern with adding GSF I don't want them to cross breed with the bluegill that can reproduce much more effectively so I guess I'm wondering if I should stop adding GSF and just start taking out small bass and big channel cats.

Definitely, and start taking out lots of them. You won't ever be able to add enough forage fish doing what you are doing to make a difference.

Take out every skinny bass you catch, no matter how long it is. EVERY ONE. Also take out every Catfish over 2 pounds.

GSF act as small bass in their feeding habits, so while they will be eaten by the larger bass, they will be eating food that could be feeding smaller bass before they get eaten.