Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Fish Removal Strategy - your advice for me?

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.

What are your goals wrt managing for big BG or big Bass? If I were after big BG, I would let the largest males stay in and harvest female BG throughout this year. With small BG stocked last year, the 2007 spawn, and 2008 spawns that will be occurring this year, you have 3 year classes of young'uns and future generations of BG should be secure. 100 adult BG is more than sufficient for inital pond stocking or continued baby BG production, so some reduction in numbers should be OK.

All those various sized BG mouths are probably harder on any CC eggs and fry than the relatively few Bass are. Getting CC recruitment in the presence of BG and LMB is indeed difficult and uncommon. It can happen - my CC have managed it - but more often it doesn't.

Can you have a little of both - big BG and big LMB?

Yep. Not as big, on average, as if you managed for either separately, but you can strive for the "balanced pond" that has both BG & LMB in middlin' big sizes.