Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Fish ID questions

Friend of mine has what I think is a over populated pond with stunted bass. its about a 3/4 to 1 acre pond with very nice water quality with sandy beach for swimming. I caught some to take a few pictures. First the bass picture if you call tell if it looks stunted and what signs to look for.
She thinks the bg are full blooded and I cant tell if they may have been cross breeding. this first one has a red tab could it be a RES? any comments on this one?

1. Largemouth bass...poor body condition

2. Bluegill X Green sunfish hybrid male

3. Bluegill X Green sunfish hybrid, probably female with eggs.

Thanks Bruce, These guys put up a nice fight and there was some nice sized ones around 9" or so. The bg will eat the fish food but the bass will not so that's why they are so puny I guess. So will there be any full blooded BG in her pond or will they be cross bred with the sun fish. I caught some really big mouthed BG last week that probably were right around 10" maybe a little more and I think they were guarding nest which I didn't notice until I got to where the glare of the water would allow me to see into the depth of the pond. IS the BG x green sunfish mix undesirable?

Personally I think that particular hybrid has all sorts of desirable traits.

Hard fighting.

Agressive.

Cool looking.

Relatively easy to manage their reproduction.

They can be a very good tool for specific management applications. Not so good for others.

I am trying to figure a way that her pond will sustain healthy bass and bg. I don't think there is much cover on the bottom but she has one edge that has grass and other growth for protection but you just don't see any small fish for forage and to top it off she has some big CC as well as some smaller CC.

If its not too much trouble could you explain a little about the management applications and how to manage there reproduction.

Also when I stocked my pond with Hybrid bg from a fishery what generally is the hybrid bg a cross between? I knew once but heck I have seen something shining and forgot.

Thanks again

99.9% of all commercially available HBG are GSFxBG.

Maybe a higher % than that, actually.

P.S. ewest needs to grab that gravid Female HBG pic for the HBG thread - that's a rarity.

I think this is the same female. I wish I could have taken better quality pictures

I'd be interested if you squeezed that fish if eggs or milt would come out, or just a bunch of fish poop! Just has too much yellow and gold to be female. With hybrids you just never know though...