Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Sunfish-Including Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass BG, male or female?

snrub:

Try and stock close to 50 BG (25 pairs). Also when catching them, look at the mouth size. Larger mouths mean that there probably is some GSF mixed in. RES do have slightly larger mouths than BG, but nowhere near as large as GSF or GSF hybrids.

Ear tab size, black scale tipping on the shoulders for a male BG and no blueish/greenish streaks on the cheeks mean BG. BG's don't have orange on the ear tab.

With the possibility of GSF left in the pond, it is what it is. That's what you have to work with, so that's what we will do!

What you want to do is try and make sure that their offspring (GSF) aren't the majority of panfish in the pond. Overwhelm and dilute their gene pool if possible. Stock FHM if you can.

In late July/August, toss in a minnow trap or two and show us the fingerlings. We can let you know if the BG spawned or if any GFS showed up. Next year, don't stock large LMB, just stock smaller ones. If you wait until August, you should be able to catch some 3"-5" LMB in your pond to stock in hers. Since the BG population will likely be low, don't go crazy stocking them next year (the LMB). 50 will do.

The problem with stocking light fish numbers is that if there is an undesirable fish species in the pond that will spawn sooner than the desirable ones, mother nature will try and fill up the pond with the fish you don't want.