Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Removing Bluegill

I recently read an article that said for every 1 bass you catch and remove, you should also remove 7-8 med - large bluegill. Is this correct?

I understand that you can have bluegills that can grow too big for most bass to eat, but I was under the impression that these large bluegill will lay more eggs than smaller bluegill which in turn provides more food for the bass.

If my pond ever comes to a point where there is too many large bluegill and not enough smaller bluegills to feed the smaller bass, I think the better solution would be to add a large bass to the pond.

What are your goals for the pond? Those are what determine how to manage the BG/LMB populations.

I have never done this? I let my bass control my BG. I determine by my LMB, RWs whether or not I need to remove any bass. I have never kept BG on the basis of I just caught a bass and now I need to remove 8 BG? I do from time to time how ever keep a few nice BG to eat in the 7 to 9 inch range. Anything under 7 and over 9 go back in.

Keep in mind however it is NOT that easy to catch bass in my pond. I am sure they are eating pretty darn good. I haven't seen some of them for a couple years now.

Like Eric said above it really comes down to what your goal is for your pond?

Of course that can change when I first started this pond all I could think of was big bass, big bass!! And now I have a blast catching my big blue gill... lol Yes bass are fun but for some quick fishing fun with the kids these large BG cant be beat!! And man do they taste better than LMB!!!!

RC

Being that my pond is only an acre, I would be happy to have a few 4-7 pound bass in my pond with as many large bluegills the pond will support.

I live pretty close to a body of water that has a lot of threadfin shad. I occasionally stock a few dozen of them in the pond to give the bluegill a break in the food chain. The pond is about 7 years old and I think the biggest bass caught was a 4 pounder. I did catch a few bluegills in the pond a week ago that were 9 inches long.

It sounds like your pond is very well balanced for good sizes of both BG and LMB. Keeping an eye on the sizes you catch over time will tell you if it is starting to sway one way or another which will lead to culling practices...

If you want bigger bass then take out the smaller LMB you catch to make more room and food for the bigger ones, but your BG numbers that will fit in the larger LMB's mouth may diminish.

If you want larger BG, leave all the bass in the pond under 12 to 14 inches or so to help keep the BG populations in check and remove every bass larger. This helps eliminate the larger mouth gapes hence reducing the predation of your larger BG but leaves predators to eat down the BG spawns. It has also been suggested that culling smaller BG helps so long as you leave enough to grow into your large class especially if you are keeping the larger older BG.

Don't take my suggestions as gospel, it's merely a regurgitation of my readings. I have not practiced this as my pond only has minnows in it so far.

I am sure that for every pond scenario and the individual owner's goals there is a rule of thumb ratio for removing one kind of fish with respect to another, but that ratio will change from year to year as mother nature is not a constant.

I'd say you are in a great place if you don't have over populations of either species and the larger sizes are catchable. Just keep an eye on things and learn to adjust according to your settings.

Can you post a link to the article. I'm sure that would spark some more intense discussion.

Good advice above.

I've noticed good success in my family's Missouri pond managing for bass by just keeping tabs of RW and culling any bass under 14" that look anything but plump.

Managing for BG is something I've read up on but don't have a whole lot of practice in. From what I've read, to have a good BG fishery keep your bass small and hungry (Release anything under 14", keep anything over). And do not remove your biggest male BG as they are the "bar-setters" so to speak in that younger male BG will spend their energy growing rather than trying to compete for reproductive rights.