Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam A pond dedicated to Redear Sunfish

I tend to agree with Shorty that having them in a pond by themselves tends to make catching them easier.

I have given a fair amount of thought to RES and why they are difficult to catch in the normal LMB/BG pond. Does not mean my thoughts are correct, just that I have given it consideration.

First just consider the sheer number differences. Say a person starts out with the normal 10-20% of RES stocked compared to BG. That already lowers the odds of catching one to one in 5 or 10. Then consider the difference in fecundity. We know BG produce lots more eggs and fry than RES. So it would be entirely possible that after four or five years the numbers of BG compared to RES in the pond might be 100 to 1 or greater. So everything else being equal (which it is not of course, but humor me) the odds favor catching a hundred BG for every single RES caught. Then add in the catch-ability factor that BG are more aggressive then drop a line and hook in an area where there are a hundred hungry BG and a lone RES competing for that bait.

Of course that is a simplified view of the situation as the fish may seek out different environments and an angler can take advantage of the differences in fish behavior.

But I think just looking at the potential differences in population between the number of RES vs BG in a pond makes it evident why so many people wonder where their RES went because they either never or rarely catch one.

I catch a hand full a year out of my main 3 acre pond but I catch hundreds and hundreds of BG. I suspect I may be catching the RES not too different than what their population ratio suggests the odds of catching them are.

Meanwhile I am trying to modify that population so that my odds of catching RES goes up.