Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations NEW POND STOCKING

WE HAVE A NEW POND ABOUT ONE HALF ACRE, 10 FT DEEP, VERY STEEP SIDES. I AM STOCKING IT WITH FISH FROM OTHER PONDS. SO FAR I'VE PUT IN 35 MATURE B/G AND 10 8IN BASS. WHAT NEXT?---VERY LIMITED CASH!!!

THANKS

What other kinds of fish do you like to catch?

5 pounds of fathead minnows should tide the bass over until the BG spawn. Maybe the pond owner will allow you to trap some small BG. A Wal-Mart minnow trap works well.

If you can dipnet a bunch of gambusia minnows (mosquito fish), you can reduce the FHM.

BRUCE, IN THIS POND I AM ONLY INTERESTED IN CATCHING BASS.

Back off on the bass and keep putting in the BG. The bass are eating machines that take 10 pounds of forage to increase by one pound.

I like to think of a pond like a pasture with the BG as grass (forage) and the bass as cows (grass predators). Assume that you now have 10 cows on 35 newly planted acres of forage. Everytime that a BG spawns, the babies will be eaten before they can grow to be a respectable mouthful. Have a bunch of fun BG fishing the other ponds and think of them as nothing more as a renewable protien source.

THANKS DAVE FOR THE INFO.

That's probably the best advice you could get. If you love LMB only, then bluegill are nothing more than a management tool. You should be trying to get the bluegill to lock in at the most utilizable size, like 1-4 inches. You'll also want to determine if you value LMB "action" or LMB "quality" when you decide how to manage your pond.

Those LMB will starve very quickly with out some right sized forage. As Bruce and Bob said get some small BG and minnows in there. Those LMB can't eat the adult BG and yoy BG are to small to keep them alive. BG 2-4in. and adult FH , gams or other minnows or even GSF would work.