Well, first off welcome to the forum...
If you don't subscribe to the magazine it would be well worth the investment. Along with several of the books offered as well.
Bill Cody and I are working on a series of articles that should be coming out later in the year on just the subject your speaking of. How to collect wild forage fish, properly introduce them into your pond and what species to consider for your pond.
Just about any species you catch in a stream will survive in a pond. They may not reproduce, but the bass will certainly eat them. You have to be careful when collecting from the wild about disease and parasite introduction and introducing unwanted species... To the average collector, small carp can look much like more desirable pond species. Invest in a good field guide, like Peterson's to help you firmly ID your catch. Most species of "shiner" will survive in a pond, however, few naturally reproduce in a small pond. Creek chubs, stone rollers and pearl dace are much the same way.
From the sounds of it, your pond is a little bass heavy and forage fish short. I would start removing some of the bass. Measure them and weigh them, to get their relative weights. Look up relative weights on this forum for information on how to see the health of your bass. You probably want to remove 20 or so 10"-12" bass, but until you get some relative weights, it's hard to get an exact number.
As you get close to removing good numbers of bass, then you can look more closely at bumping up bluegill numbers and considering adding more forage fish.
As far as FL genetics, I think you are a hair bit too far north for them to worth the effort. Stick with just removing some of the bass in your pond for now. That alone will make a huge difference IMO.
Last edited by CJBS2003; 05/05/09 07:30 AM.
