Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations bass minimum spawning size

Here's a different angle. Rather than looking for bass which spawn, if that's your thinking, remember you need to provide an adequate food chain, first. The numbers you stocked are not the best advice. You stocked fewer sunfish than you should have, and more fatheads than you needed.
Fatheads feed bass fingerlings for a year to 18 months. Then, young sunfish, spawned from your originally stocked fish, become the backbone of your food chain.
If done properly, your bass grow as the food chain expands, until bass reach 9-12"...when they spawn. Bass babies completely change the dynamics, as they grow up.
If you want to stock fish this fall, add bluegill.
Then, next spring, stock 50-75 bass per acre. Besides, that's when fish prices really do drop. New baby bass sell for less, because farmers have more of them.