Mark -- I was hoping that some others with experience would post. Here is my story.
I have had troubles getting pumpkinseeds established in a couple of ponds with heavy predator populations. One pond was a gravel pit, and had largemouth bass and walleye. The pumpkinseeds never did "take." The other pond was a 22-acre hill pond (dam), and had lots of walleye, smallmouth bass, and a few largemouth bass. It also has bluegill and yellow perch. We stocked adult pumpkinseeds, but never have seen them reproduce or increase in number. Caught a couple of the adults while sampling with a class. Haven't given up yet, though.
Now, we did stock pumpkinseeds into a gravel pit that only had smallmouth bass in it. The pumpkinseeds really took hold, and in fact, might be too abundant. We wrote about this pond in the July/August 2010 issue of Pond Boss magazine, if you have a subcription. If not, send me a message or email with your email address, and I'll send a copy of that article. Maybe we can talk you into a subscription after that. Following our experience in that gravel pit pond, we did introduce the pumpkinseeds into a hill pond that had smallmouth bass and orangespotted sunfish. Too soon to tell if that worked or not.
I would like to hear from others who introduced pumpkinseeds into ponds with the more effective predators (largemouth bass, walleye, and maybe chain pickerel or northern pike?).
