Hi, I am new to the site as well as pond management. My wife's family last year (3/2012) stocked their pond which at the time was about 2 surface acres but the previous several years would go dry as Texas was in a horrible drought. They stocked according to the recommendations of the hatchery where the got the fish as follows:
Okay, I think the best bet would be to stock it at a 1 acre amount. So here my recommendations:
Well the year has passed plus a little more and I went fishing for the first time last week. Also since that year has past we have had a good bit of rain and we are now approaching 4+ surface acres now. I caught 2 bass that I would call healthy and had 2 lost to others. I was using ultra light tackle and 4lb test not realizing I could expect some very fun fish so fast. I would estimate that were about a 1+ lbs each. One that broke my line did so right at the boat (of course) did appear to be larger than both of those fish. I also caught a few nice bream and some very small crappie. I didnt take the pictures of the smaller fish but will start.
My question is do I need to start removing fish now. Ideally we would like a good balance of fishing but would love to have 5-6 lb bass and most everything else is secondary. We were also thinking of buying several more pounds of minnows if that would help fish continue growing.
I have read the stories on stunted fish and over populated BC and I just want to see how to get a handle on it from the start.
