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I would personally leave then and just add whatever else you want especially if you have or plan to add bass to the pond. Hybrids don't reproduce well and more forage is always better.

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Guys -

Based on the link provided above, I made my own fish traps. They are not perfect by any means, but i think they will do the job. smile







QUESTION -
1. Should i trash some of the BG that were just stocked that I catch in the traps, and leave all the mutts? (and replace the same # of BG removed with HBG that the fish farm will replace)

2. Predators - should i add LMB AND HSB, or just one or the other - and, how many of each given the size is .20 acres?


.20 acre pond-that leaks/4-5' deep. Stocked 6/22/19 with 300 BG(supposed to be HBG, removed 100+/- so far), 100 RES, 3carp. On 8/20 added 300 HBG, + 21 5"HSB. 8/21 added 5 8" SMB, one 10" LMB , one 14" CC
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Do you have any current LMB or HSB? The LMB-HSB should be big enough to immediately eat some of the most abundant small fish. To survive the new predators need to immediately begin eating food. HSB are always pellet trained so if they are small they can eat pellets until they are big enough to eat the smallest fish. Unless small LMB 3"-4" are pellet trained they will struggle to survive if no small 1" fish are present. At 0.2 ac you can have around total 20-25 predators when too many small BG are present. Then a few predators can be removed when they gain control of the sunfish. LMB and HSB will survive well together. the smaller the predators are the more toward 20 that will thrive. The larger they are toward 14"-16" the fewer the number more toward 10-14. Higher number of predator toward the 20-25 the fewer and larger the average sunfish will be.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 08/14/19 09:02 PM.

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Thanks so much for the specifics Bill.

No - i don't have any predators at all in there now. I will get 20 or so split LMB and HSB, as large as i can get. I'm uncertain what size they have right now. Also i'm getting some larger size HBG as well, and will remove ( with traps) as many BG that i replace with HBG.


.20 acre pond-that leaks/4-5' deep. Stocked 6/22/19 with 300 BG(supposed to be HBG, removed 100+/- so far), 100 RES, 3carp. On 8/20 added 300 HBG, + 21 5"HSB. 8/21 added 5 8" SMB, one 10" LMB , one 14" CC
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What you really want in your pond is HBG and HSB right? Since your not talking large numbers, could your fish guy give you same sex LMB to help get the BG out, and not have to worry about them spawning. Then you could fish them out later if you didn't need or want them?


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I'm trying to remove as many BG from the pond as possible using traps over the past few days. Tomorrow i will be adding 5-6" HSB and 300 HBG ( to replace the 300BG i put in 2 months ago). Also I dropped a few 8-10" Smallmouth in yesterday - maybe they can control a few small ones as well. Who knows if they will survive in the high temp water, but worth a shot.

I did catch a few of these little guys - of which, I did NOT put any this size in when i stocked 2 months ago. How hold is this fish? If there are a "few", there probably as many?!??!


.20 acre pond-that leaks/4-5' deep. Stocked 6/22/19 with 300 BG(supposed to be HBG, removed 100+/- so far), 100 RES, 3carp. On 8/20 added 300 HBG, + 21 5"HSB. 8/21 added 5 8" SMB, one 10" LMB , one 14" CC
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I think the BG in the above picture looks to be 1.75"(44mm) was spawned in 2019 probably in May in AK. It could grow 0.5mm to 1mm per day with good food. Thus if hatched May 20 at 7mm long and to Aug 19 = 95days X 0.5mm/day(47mm growth); thus (7mm hatchling + 47mm growth = 54mm, 2.1") is close to the size of your above small BG.
You very likely will have a couple more hatches of BG after the first hatch that likely produced the above fish; newly hatched small BG that are likely too small to be retained by your new homemade 1/2" mesh fish traps. Thus you should have adequate food for the new HSB & LMB that you will stock. Return to tell us how long the fish were that the fishfarm sold you. They for sure bought the HSB that you receive. Get some a little (5-10lbs) of their fish food from them to suppliment HSB foods. Ask if the LMB are pellet trained.
How many BG are you catching for each trap set?

Last edited by Bill Cody; 08/19/19 09:02 PM.

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Agree with Bill. Depending on food available that BG looks to be about 90 days +-.
















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Thanks for the feedback on the age of the small fish. As of now i have nothing in there than can eat them.....as i think the 4 Smallmouth (8-10") that i put in didn't survive (i know at least 2 didn't).


Ok - i think i got the right fish this time. smile
I got 300 HBG that averaged in the 4" range (3-5"), and 21 HSB that averaged 5" (4-6")- and 2 lbs of FHM.
I only caught/removed about 25BG in the trap last night, but will continue trapping and weed them out little by little each day.



So, my questions - given the fact that i have 300BG, 300HBG, 100RES, plus stragglers from the 20 mutts i put in last fall that produced the small fry above, 21 HSB stocked today, + 3 grass carp 10-12" in the pond - AM I GROSSLY OVERLOADED FOR A .20 ACRE POND? ALso to note, today when i put them in the water temp was 85 degrees.

All the HSB and HBG stocked today seem to have transitioned fine, at least while i was there,...however about half the minnows died.


And yes, the HSB and HBG are pellet trained....and i feed Optimal Jr daily.


8/22/19 update - i have 2 traps out with NO bait. Each of the past 2 days i've caught about 50 total fish in the traps....and of the 50, 42 were HBG just stocked, only 5 (of the 300) BG, and 3 HSB. I intend to keep doing this daily until i get sick of it trying to remove as many BG as possible. As of now, i've taken out about 35-40 total, of the 300 stocked. ALso i put in one 10" largemouth so he can start some immediate cleanup of the small fry while the HSB grow up.



Last edited by jpws; 08/22/19 08:28 AM.

.20 acre pond-that leaks/4-5' deep. Stocked 6/22/19 with 300 BG(supposed to be HBG, removed 100+/- so far), 100 RES, 3carp. On 8/20 added 300 HBG, + 21 5"HSB. 8/21 added 5 8" SMB, one 10" LMB , one 14" CC
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If the minnows were just hauled in, that doesn't surprise me. They can handle amazing amounts of stress in low water quality situations and I have seen exactly the opposite from transportation.
FHM do best when sedated and released from that water, they slowly transition back to full speed metabolism.

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Update - as of today i've removed about 55 +/- BG using the cloverleaf traps . The vast majority of what goes in the trap are the freshly stocked HBG. On average I catch 25 fish per trap per day, with no bait.

I have found 4 dead HSB, and saw one more this morning on his last leg - swimming slowly near the top gasping for air, so a little worried about them all making it. There could be more dead in the grass along the edges that I've not yet seen, which worries me. Hopefully the other 15 or so, plus the SMB and 2LMB make it and go some BG damage control.

We did get a nice rain on Friday and Saturday that raised the water level about 4-5", which was much needed. My "drains" that were put in to collect runoff seem to be working well as when we get a good rain there is a stead inflow of water.

Last edited by jpws; 08/26/19 09:03 AM.

.20 acre pond-that leaks/4-5' deep. Stocked 6/22/19 with 300 BG(supposed to be HBG, removed 100+/- so far), 100 RES, 3carp. On 8/20 added 300 HBG, + 21 5"HSB. 8/21 added 5 8" SMB, one 10" LMB , one 14" CC
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You should be able to recognize how many HSB that survived when you hand feed the pellets. Very fast flash surface splashes for pellets will be the HSB which travel in schools; traits from each of the parents. With BG present which you will never eliminate, you will have to reconcile with having BG which can grow large if well managed with good pellet feeding, maintaining proper sized predators, and wise BG harvest.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 08/26/19 10:12 AM.

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