Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Bluegill fry chased onto beach

Larry - In addition to what Bob said, one year after your bass have spawned and their young are 8"-10" long and ready to spawn THEN you will need to re-evaluate your bass bluegill ratio. This I predict will be in the spring of 2008. Your original stock (Aug 04) of bass will not spawn until May 2006. These 2006 young will be 3"-4"at end of 2006 and will spawn in May of 2008 at 8"-10". When this happens you will have 4 year classes of bass in your pond (2004's, 2006's, 2007's, 2008's that are creating a lot of predatory pressure on your bluegills. At this point you may begin to have too many bass in your pond and may need to start doing some of your first bass harvest by thinning them to maintain a population of good plump bass. Bass in a small pond that is only catch and release can easily become too abundant and over eat their food source of bluegills. To learn more about this read Bob Lusk's article in the Sept-Oct 2004 issue of Pond Boss magazine.