Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Feeding Mud Minnows

I have a one year old pond, stocked my BG in fall of 2008, and LMB in June 2009. When I stocked LMB, I had a very large Gam population, which they took care of during the summer. Just thinking, would it do me some good to stock some more LMB food in early spring to give them a jump or is my BG population probably sufficient to carry the LMB. Obviously, I want to grow some big ones.

Anybody?

Hey Martin, the forum can be slow on the weekends, probably hangovers, try posting your question under "raising forage and bait", you should get a response by tonight, but don't give up.

Hi Martin.

A couple of thoughts:

1. Don't completely discount your GAMs. The reproduction of GAMs can be quite unbelievable. So I would imagine that you will have a healthy school of GAMs again by the end of spring. DIED added a hand full of GAMS (I think it was 9) and they turned into huge schools of the little guys.

2. How is your BG population doing? Since you stocked BG in fall 2008 I would imagine that you had some BG recruitment in 2009. They will help to fill in the forage base in 2010 as well.

It is my understanding that LMB, as they get larger, will have a tendency to more away from minnows as forage and more toward larger fish, the BG will probably be the primary food source for your larger LMB. I'm not sure at what size (of the LMB) that this process begins. Anyone?

Many folks here add Golden Shiners as a supplemental forage base. You can purchase a box of Golden Shiner Fry (I think it costs about $250) for a box of a zillion fry (these might not be the actual numbers but you get the idea) from Anderson Minnows. I met these guys at the Pond Boss 3 Conference, great folks.

Hang on for an opinion from someone that knows what they are talking about though.

Martin:

I can't believe this is the first time that I saw your post.

How much cover and/or structure do you have in your pond? Is there grass or emergent plant life along the shore for some of the Gams to hide in? Is there cover for the YOY BG to seek refuge from the LMB?

I have virtually NO weeds in the pond, and little structure (which will be rectified this winter), and the LMB just about completely wipe out the YOY BG on me.

I'm back, haven't been on in a while. My pond has a little grass growing, but otherwise it's pretty new, hopefully this year I will begin to see the grass show up. I put in about 10 brush piles. So gams have a place to hang out. Usually I see them right on the bank; however they are really little fellers. My BG population is doing great, I had spawning beds pretty much all summer. Guess I'm just getting anxious. LMB will only be one year old from stocking this June, so I guess I need to hang in there.

It takes a while for bass to grow... It's tough to be patient waiting for your fish to grow! What size were your LMB when you stocked them and how big are they now? If you pulled off a good BG spawn this past year it sounds like your bass will have plenty to eat. How big is your pond?