I am a little gun shy on assuming the pond will fill and stay full this year. We came out of winter great with about 4' of water. The normal spring rains did not happen - the rain we did get would bring it up a couple of inches but then a week or 10 days with no rain and it would go down a couple of inches. Meanwhile the small pond did not go down. I think the reason is because much of the new pond has bare sides and the water "wicks" up 12" of more, plus it is warmer being shallower.
We finally got a good downpour last week and after 3 days of off and on rain it is up from 4' deep to 5' deep with 3 to go. I won't be surprised if I go into November with 5' and have it fill over the winter.
I think the pond is healthy with phyto and zoo plankton. There are a lot of waterbugs, tads, frogs, dragonflies and various plantlife. The color is green but not as deep green as the small pond.
I am a little reluctant to spend $150 on another fish delivery and would rather introduce some predators through catching and transferring. YP would be a lot easier in that regard than Smallies. And I would not feel bad if I put in some YP I caught and it did not work out (dead fish). I am working towards being a true pondmeister - how many fish do I need to kill to reach master status?
If you guys think adding some YP will be sufficient to slow down the BG, I will add some as soon as I can. How many? I imagine I need the perch to be 6-8" plus in size to have an impact. I am guessing they will only be able to affect the BG fry and will be unable to eat the BG that are 2" and larger? I could probably find a place to get some smallies but right now I am not sure where. I assume they could eat larger BG - up to ? size. Maybe up to 4-5"?
Does adding 15 to 20 YP in the 6" + size make sense? If I can locate and add 6 or 12 smallies in the 9"+ size would that be smart?
I have not observed any for sure BG nest or spawning behavior. But I might not know it if I saw it. I have not observed any fry that I know for sure are BG. I did see a small shool of very small black colored fry that I assumed were FHM.
Often I do not see any fish at all. Makes me wonder as I walk all around the edge frequently. The BG do show up to eat japanese beetles that have become available of late - everything I have seen I would estimate at 3-5" with an occassional 6-8". My instincts tell me the BG have spawned. With your helpful input I am now concerned that they (BG) not get too far out front.
Thanks again for the help. I am going to go "in search of" some SMB and YP. Any advice on how many and what size classes would be appreciated. For now I am assuming some is better than none and if they are small I could add many more than if larger. If larger I bet I could still add a dozen or so of each without danger of them running out of forage base. There are the 50 redears in there for them as well as the BG.
