Here is what is in my pond.I am overran with this sunfish. Can someone let me know what it is and should i keep or try to get rid of them.(pic 1). 1/4 acre pond just stocked with 100 HBG (pic 2) I think those are the HBGs and 50 CC. pic 3 I think is a goggleeye, have caught only 1. And pic 4 is the crawls. This pond has been very muddy and it is hard to ID the small fish with low color. I plan to harvest the CC at eating size, and plan to add a few LMB's. but not sure when the best time is now or later?
Onaha, I was thinking slow growing with the larger eyes and long fins. These guys seem to be the only thing eating the CC food. I can catch about 6-8 of these 1-2" size (BG) on each throw of a 6' cast net.
The CC are 4-6" size, Do I need to try to train them on food, or are they large enough to eat the small crawls and other fry?
What size and # of LMB would good to add right now?
Your CC should grow quickly so I'd just be patient. They're finding other things to eat right now. Stocked a lot of them for a 1/4 acre pond, but you might be alright. How many LMB? Depends on your goals. I would think about only 20 or so. Let someone else definitively answer that question.
It is a .30 acer pond with about half of the depths are 16' My brother lives close by with a 7 acer pond so stocking LMB's is not a problem. I was also told to stock only 1 sex of LMB to reduce spawning. How can I tell the sex of the LMB and should I use males or females?
Female LMB get larger than their male counterparts, so that is probably the gender you want to stock if you were only going to stock one. However, let an expert weigh in here on whether that is the way to go and how to differentiate between the sexes.
20-25 LMB sounds about right. I'd stock no larger than 10" fish, and no smaller than 8" fish. Any larger than that (i.e. 12") could eat the smaller CC. As to sexing them, I can't help. With all that forage in the pond they'll grow fast!!
Will the 8-10" LMB also eat the 1-3" HBG I just added? Maybe I will add 10-12 LMB now.Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
They could, and probably will if no soft rayed fusiform fish are easily available. LMB will eat fish up to 1/3 their length and prefer something around 1/4 their length. (Most bang for the energy expended buck.)