Thoughtful question, Robert, asking if a 1-acre pond will support a bluegill/bass fishery.
One acre can support a bluegill/bass fishery. It can. Emphasis on the CAN.
You will find that in about three or four years, your bass are such predators, they will always threaten to overeat their food supply. Result is underweight bass that, in extreme cases, are more vulnerable to parasites and disease.
In a highly fertile (green water) pond where you feed the bluegill a high-protein supplement, you can get away with raising a few bass . . . maybe 25 pounds to the acre. But you'll still need to remove a few bass every year, just to keep up with the recruitment (spawn survival).
Pond pros I work with generally recommend NOT stocking bass unless your water body covers at least 1 surface acre, minimum. A smaller system simply has trouble generating enough forage to sustain the bass population.
Mark McDonald
Editor, Pond Boss
