My Pond was built in Sept. of 2006 - it is 10ft deep and about a 1/2 acre in size. I'm a first time pond owner.
I put in 200 Blue Gill, (100 small 1-2 inchers and 100 mature BG in March 07) 100 Red Ear (1-2 inchers March of 2007) 1,000 Fathead Minnows (March 2007) 30 Channel Catfish (3 inchers March 2007) and 30 Largemouth Bass ( 3 inchers Sept 2007)
I feed my fish 3 times per week, the Blue Gill are very responsive and the Channel catfish as well have slowly become more feed friendly. The minnows gang up on the leftover pellets.
I have seen evidence that the Blue Gill spawned last year, I have netted the fry and they are certainly little blue gill and FH minnows, much smaller than what I stocked.
My question is - can and should I begin to take out the larger Blue Gill, the Mature BG I put in last year are now good size, I was thinking of taking out around 75 of the bigger BG's this year, also the Channel Catfish are now around 16 inches long, perfect for fiddler size. I was planning on taking out 15 (half) of the channel catfish before they get too big, I'll try and catch the rest next year and then re stock. I have heard the CC will have a hard time successfully breeding. I do have some hollow structure that they may use, but have heard the CC fry will not make it w/ the LMB in a smaller pond.
Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.
