Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Where are my Bass?

bc - Note I said "minnows OR more forage items". Most of those with experience on this forum, including me, think adding fatheads to a pond with an existing bass populaton is a waste of money unless you have a LOT of money or pretty deep pockets. Best all-around bass forage item is bgill. Getting high numbers of the optimum numbers of the correct sizes of bgill for the bass requires management or luck; esp for long term bass population growth.

Fender, unless I miss my guess, will probably want to sell you more fatheads to promote your crappie or bass growth. Ask Fender when you should be adding the fatheads. I think fatheads are primarily for growing the first stocking of fingerling bass. After that, fatheads cannot begin to keep pace with bass predation. And then any addition of fatheads is just like giving your dog a snack or treat. To actually do any good at fish growth and for a pond your size you would need to add one gallon (8 lbs)of fatheads every 2 to 4 weeks.

I'm not sure that fatheads stocked alone with crappie would even work for very long. Crappie alone with golden shiners may be a better option. Crappie sizes and densities would have to be watched and managed carefully and crappie spawning would have to be minimized.

Crappie do eat small bgill because I've caught crappie when using small 1"-1.5" bgill as bait. I think crappie prefer minnows or shiners as forage. Bgill quickly grow out of optimum forage size for the 4" to 6" crappie. So the rest of the year crappie have to scrounge for food and their growth suffers or stagnates.

I think Pond chow or Game fish Chow is pretty much a waste of money if you are wanting or expecting the bass to eat and grow well on it. However those foods do work pretty good for bgill, catfish and minnows.