Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations bass not growing

Tom - Thanks to Dave D. for clarifying some of my comments.

Fender is a real nice guy; I know him well. If you mention all this to him he will call all us "NUTS" at this website. He will say he has been doing this stuff longer than any of us. He is "OLD" and been raising fish since the 1950's. His stocking philosophy is for a all -around-general fishing pond with diveristy. If you told him you wanted to primarily grow big bass fast then he may have given you different advice. He is knowledgable, but needs to know what your main goal is/was. Maybe your goal changed or became refined after your got your fish?

Fender, as with most hatcheries, push for the one time stocking plan; add all fish at once. It just takes longer to get large fish that way. This way they get all your business. This way works,, but it is not the best way to quickly grow fish to large sizes.

The shellcrackers (redears) will not cause you any problems but they will not produce very many offspring to feed bass compared to bgills. Unless your are a really good fisherman, you will probably catch very few of them with hook and line and rarely ever see them; maybe even wonder if they survived.

Hyb bgill's offspring is "trash" and rarely grow very big after many generations. The first few spawns can result in some decent sized HBG. Fish as many of them out as possible and do not restock hybrids. The adults get big pretty fast and they eat lots of bass & perch fry and 1" bass, plus compete with young bass for food.

Fender's bluegills when managed properly will grow to 9" & 10" long. Fenders bass are quality northern bass.

Fender does sell crayfish but they are a mixture of papershell crayfish and rusty crayfish. The rusty crayfish will eventually outcompete the papershells and become dominate crayfish in your pond. Bass will eat both but they prefer papershell. You could stock several hundred if you have rock piles for cover.

If you are not feeding your fish pellets the catfish are eating small fish and bottom critters to survive. I would remove them when ever you catch them. Each catfish takes the place of one bass. Remove a catfish and you will gain a bass. Fender taught me that a 5 lb cat eats more than a 5 lb bass. As him about this. Also remember to ask Fender about what Zetts said to you about his bass.

To get best growth out of your bass you should have stocked fewer of them and stocked 30,000 fatheads instead of the initial 3000 and left out hybrids and cats. Perch will thrive in your pond about 4 or 5 yrs then they will gradually disappear as the bass grow to 15"&16"+. A 16" bass eats 7" & 8" perch. Perch eat bass fry and young bass similar to hyb bgill.