Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations fish renovatin

Hi last year I went to overton fisheries and stocked my 1 1/2 to 2 acre pond in north east texas with 30 8-10 inch lagemouth bass 70 blue cats 150 CNBG. before this there already where lots of Golden shiners and and black bull heads. I had also put 30 2-3 inch f1 LMG. And was feeding them till about 2 monthes ago.

But my question is we have had a drought lately and the water level has gone down and since then I have noticed a lot of CNBG are disapearing and so I was thinking this spring about stocking other bait fish to give the bass other forage fish to eat and I was also thinking about about this fall stocking hybrid stripers does any body know what forage to stock and if I should stock Hybrid stripers.

thank you

Well i would buy some 6-8" CNBG and put those in there. Reason 1) They are big enought to where they wont get eating. 2) They will start to reproduce once the water warms up this year. They will have about 5 hatches. This will hopefully get you going with a forage fish.

What do you mean a lot of CNBG are disappearing ? Poached , eaten by LMB , dead or other? HSB will eat BG and pellets. They also eat Tshad and a host of other things as well including GShiners.

By disapearing the water level has droped causing most of the hiding places for the small fish are gone causing the BG numbers to greatly drop.

You may want to consider putting more cover in the pond where the CNBG could utilize it during lower water levels.

I would definitely consider stocking more CNBG of an advanced size as well. You can look into stocking another batch of GSH as well to help supplement the population you already have in there. Tilapia are also an option as an annual stocking. They may help take the pressure off your CNBG.

HSB will eat anything they can get in their mouths, but will really like the GSH. Gambusia or mosquitofish are also another option to stock. They are small in size but are about impossible to be completely predated out of a pond.