Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations My pond evaluation after buying it in 2007.

From looking at Bruce's BG, it could be less than 50!

Clearly, ericdc, you can see that Theo high-jacked this thread.

Rest assured knowing it was done with love.

THEOOOOOOOOO!

"Oh, sure, blame the dark wizards."

Back on track .

Sorry I am late to this one. For the south the Co-op extension service based on Swingle's research developed pond mgt books predicated upon the depression period need to have sustainable ponds to provide food. Those manuals seek a balanced fishery for food production with LMB , BG and CC (sometimes). Does this sound like ericdc's goals ? If so their advice is to remove 3 to 5 lbs of BG for every pound of LMB. This is not suggested for trophy BG or LMB goals but for food production. Here is the info from 2 of those books ( La is the same but for some reason is off line now) :

http://www.outdooralabama.com/Fishing/freshwater/where/ponds/pondbook.pdf

Annual maximum harvests should be limited to about

125-150 pounds of bream and 25-30 pounds of largemouth

bass per acre for a properly fertilized pond (less than half these

limits for unfertilized ponds). The total catch should not be

made during a 1- or 2-month period, but evenly distributed

throughout the year. Sound harvest practices cannot be placed

on a precise schedule, but as a general rule, no more than 25

percent of the maximum yearly harvest of bream and largemouth

bass should be made during any one month. To maintain

balance, fish should be harvested at about the same rate

they reach a catchable size.



http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p1428.pdf

Most of the fish harvested

from the pond

should be bluegill and redear

sunfish. Bream reproduce

throughout the

summer and are the most

numerous fish in the

pond. A general recommendation

is to harvest 3

to 4 pounds of bream for

every pound of largemouth

bass. It is extremely

important to keep the

bream harvest in line with

the bass harvest. Many

Mississippi ponds are

under fished for bream

and can stand a much

greater bream harvest.



I suggest these links so you can do your own assessment

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92492#Post92492

State level links

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=113216#Post113216

Yes, the 5:1 rates I quoted is a balanced pond ratio, not a trophy pond towards either species...

I would rather be closer to a trophy BG pond than a trophy LMB pond.

If so, would I be correct in saying I should throw the big male BG back like I did yesterday, but still keep the bass slightly crowded.

It's going to be difficult getting a handle on my pond due to it's age and size but I am enjoying it very much. The bluegill and 2 or 3 blue cats put on a show at feeding time this evening.

I think you're right on the money, eric.

I'd like to see you keep a much higher percentage of female bluegill in general when you choose to keep fish. The combination of feeding, and selective harvest will give you a great bluegill pond. Make sure if the bluegill start looking skinny that you step on the pedal when it comes to harvest.

Thanks Bruce, so release the boys and keep the girls. I think I can do that. Any guess on how many pounds of bass I can remove and still keep bluegill size up.

In my mind, it's not a number of pounds. It's a little more esoteric.

I'd be looking at the body condition of the bass over time. As long as they are looking just a little gaunt--say Wr's of between 75 and 85, I'd think that their numbers are aboout right. If they start getting really fat, then I'd be throwing them all back to try to get their numbers up a little bit. One of the best things you can do is to keep the vegetation under 30% of the surface area of the pond so the bass have ample ability to knock back each year class of bluegill.

Bruce is right, vegetation is a big key in whether bass can effectively keep BG and other fish species numbers knocked back.

I hope I am doing this right. I actually placed some oak branches and gravel in likely bass spawning areas. The idea is let the lmb spawn, fry hide and grow enough to avoid BG predation, then remove the brush to expose the BG YOY.

I think that is one of my problems with so much of my pond being covered in water lilies and during the summer, bladderwort. That will change within a month.