Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Worst is over, need forage

After my fish kill (see muddy water section) I am going to restock bluegill. We have had survivors, to what extent I don't know. My concern is the loss of all the forage bluegill. Is there a forage species I can add until bluegill spawning takes place and restores the forage base? Shad, etc?

Thanks for any input.

Bill, How did your predators come out or do you know yet?

I would add fatheads and/ shiners if you add any minnow type forage at all. But bluegills will spawn more than once and should rebound.

Shad depending on the species could be a very bad thing. Threadfin shad if you are far enough south, maybe. Gizzard shad in a small pond I would avoid like the plague. Up where I'm at they compete with bluegills and quickly get too big for forage size even in some of our larger lakes and reservoirs.

Dave, not sure on the predators yet. Have had about 15 cats and maybe 30 bass float since Monday. Was better today, saw no new bass. Yesterday evening saw a bass about 8 to 10" sitting on a point across from my dock, he looked ok but can't tell. I will throw a little food in the evening for a while to see before I re-stock. Saw a couple of hits on top of the water this evening.

Cecil, thanks for the advise on the shad. Threadfins are the only ones I was thinking about. Will probably over stock a little with the bluegills to expect some mortality from the larger predator fish.

I do believe the worst is over. Have not seen but a couple of the larger bluegills that have died. Sure there are a few more than we have seen. Buzzards are doing a job cleaning the edge of the pond. Most dead fish are now against the dam due to brisk southern breezes we've had for the past couple of days. Coons are also helping with the cleanup. I expect in a couple of days that there will be few left. Thanks for the input.

Water has now settled and is a nice green color and not too clear. We've had rain several days during the past week. Friday I restocked 400 bluegill and they took off and have had no floaters just one dead out of the bag. This AM the remaining cats were hungry and there are still a good number of them. Nothing on the bass yet but know there were survivors, probably good for the bass population as a whole since I had too many. Will try a hook this week sometime. Also ferilized Saturday.