Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Stock bluegill or redear

In the next month or so I would like to stock either 100 4-6inch bluegills or 100 4-6inch redear. My pond is bass heavy I believe with no bass larger than 12inches caught in the last several years, and I am now begining to cull. I have some really big bluegill in the pond but rarely catch any,and have never caught or seen any small ones, I would like to have some readear in the pond to catch, but would it be better for me while trying to get my populations balanced to stock more bluegills. I am also going to try and get some tilapia in may to help with algae an forage. My pond is three acres and my goal is to have some decent balanced fishing( good bream fishing while they are on the bed and the ability to catch some decent bass 2-5 lbs every so often) I have got some great advice on here and hope to get your opinions.

If it were me, I would hammer the green carp, getting their numbers in check before adding any panfish. I'm afraid that unless your BG or RES are bonafide six inchers, if your pond is really overpopulated with bass, you'll either lose most of them to depredation, or their progeny just won't make a huge difference if pounded by both the preexisting predators and their YOY this spring/summer.

I haven't had much luck overcoming the "green carp scourge" by stocking/overstocking alone-got to get those predator numbers down.

That doesn't answer your question, however. If your main goal with the additional fish is to increase forage, then add the BG, they'll spawn several times this spring/summer. If your primary purpose is to increase diversity, then by all means add the the RES, they'll do great in NC.

With a LMB heavy pond, all 12" or less, I would try and get the LMB population thinned out before stocking anything less than 6" BG or RES. The 4" ones would become very expensive fish food quickly. It'd be a shame to spend $$ on them only to be made into fish food.

Once the LMB population is thinned out, I would try and stock both. BG will provide for more YOY forage, while the RES will help diversify the pond and help control invertebrates, but they don't have the fecundity that the BG have.

Some good advice given here... I too agree you really need to hammer the LMB. Those 4" sunfish will be expensive food as has been said. While you are thinning out those LMB, I would work on putting more cover in for the few BG that are having a remote change of making to a 2"... Christmas trees, etc sunk in 2'-4' of water should work well. The addition of the tilapia should help take some of the pressure off your BG population. If you can pay more and get guaranteed 6"+ RES or BG, get less but bigger fish to add. 6" BG should be safe from 12" LMB if your pond only has bass in that size range... 3 acres is big enough to make it a challenge to keep up with the LMB reproduction, so enlist all the friends and family you can to help you out...

I have a large "bait pen" that I built to keep menhaden in for king mackeral fishing at the coast. I believe I will use it to keep them in and feed them until I know that they are big enough. So will the redears take pellets or just the bluegills.
I also have geese and ducks in the fall that use the pond does that mean that I should get the redears to help with parasites?

RES can be trained to take pellets, particularly sinking ones, but they are far harder to train than are BG. Their is anecdotal evidence suggesting that RES help control parasites. This is because RES will eat snails which are a secondary host to yellow grub and other similar fish parasites that are spread, usually through fish eating birds like herons and king fishers. Waterfowl may also spread parasites as well. There is lots of good information on the forum are cage culture of BG and RES. Check the archives or do a search or perhaps ewest can point you in the right direction as to where such info can be found...

I agree with what everyone has said reduce the bass numbers first as much as possible and then add if possible larger BG and RES. I have parasites on some of my fish now and plan on adding larger res and bg.

With my limited knowledge and experience, I'd have to say try to cull 40lbs of LMB; then add shiners or FHM or some other much less expensive forage fish; then, a year later, add the BG or RES

I think it will be the least expensive way to go.