Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking newbie needs help!

hi everyone...new to the site and need help. i have an existing one half acre pond that i have never really managed in terms of fish populations and have an overabundance of bluegill...i am going to stock bass (2-4 inch)in a couple of weeks and according to the table i looked at the ratio of bass to bluegill should be about 1 to 5 per acre for a new or renovated pond. my question is short of starting over,do i have a chance to eventually balance the bass/bluegill populations by maybe stocking more bass initially or will the bluegill just eat all of the bass fry when they reach spawning age? i don't have access to any larger bass and no great way to deal with the existing fish to reduce their numbers(can probably remove alot by hook and line if it would be helpful...)any guidance would be a big help. thank you.

Welcome to the forum, Mike. Is there an Ohio somewhere that's not in the USA?

Are BG the only fish in the pond? If so, 2"-4" LMB should be safe from any piscine predation. I would think that there are lots of small BG (fry + stunted YOY) right now for bass this small to eat. So the LMB you add would, I think, do well, grow, and start reducing BG numbers right away.

While the new bass will grow rapidly on a stunted BG food supply, they will not be ready to spawn next Spring; I am sure in Ohio that they will still be too small. I think they will probably be ready to spawn in Spring 2009, by which time they will have eaten a great many small BG. This will greatly improve the odds for LMB fry to survive BG predation and a good number of baby bass will probably grow through the danger zone AOK. You don't really need (or want) very many bass out of the 10s of 1000s which will hatch to make it.

What are your goals for the pond? If you want to manage for large BG, I would suggest stocking 100 of the small LMB; if you are interested in larger bass, perhaps 50. OTOH if you are heading towards the popular bowfin/snakehead/alligator gar combo, I haven't a clue.

Theo, thank-you for the reply...excellent info.My goal is to have large BG. I think that I will go with 100 LMB. BG are only fish in the pond. Tempting as the bowfin/snakehead/alligator gar combo sounds I will probably just stick with the BG/LMB. Thanks again. Mikemack...OHIO USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

piscine predation?

Fish on fish action, DD.

Hi Mike,

If you haven't already checked it out, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has the "Ohio Pond Management Handbook" available on line (in both web view and pdf format). I've found it to ge a great source of information - particularly since it is geared toward Ohio. You can check it out at the Ohio DNR website or by following this link:

http://ohiodnr.com/Home/fishing/pond/default/tabid/6219/Default.aspx