Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Correcting a bass-only pond

Ewest has a good option and good management ideas that can be used with my options. Consider this option. Try some yellow perch(YP) and golden shiners with the LMB. I usually don't suggest YP with LMB due to LMB with large mouths in smaller fairly barren ponds often prevent YP in the long term (5-10yrs) from recruiting new perch once the LMB get common and above 12"-15". Since your LMB are still small, adding some larger YP may work for awhile if you keep an eye on the balance and remove all larger LMB (>12"). Another option is to stock some pumpkinseed sunfish while the LMB are still smaller.

Before you add a forage species, I would also do as ewest suggests and make a concerted effort to remove at least 60%-90% of the existing LMB. Removing 50% may not be enough LMB removed depending on what you stock as new fish. This removal wont be a lot of bass. IMO you cant remove too many LMB to achieve your stated goals. Remaining bass should recruit & recover quickly. In bass only pond of 1/4 ac you should only have around 16-25 adult bass. Thin them heavily to take significant predation pressure off new forage fish to let new forage have a better chance to get established. Another option is to remove as many LMB as possible and replace with pellet fed LMB&YP. This will work okay until new recruited nonpelleting bass get big enough to hammer the YP into a reminant population (5-7yrs) of old larger adults. Another option in this small of a pond is torenovate and start over with smallmouth bass (or LMB) and a suitable forage fish. IMO smallies will do better and be easier to manage than LMB in a small pond such as yours.
Since your pond is small, I prefer catch all the LMB you can and then I prefer the renovation with rotenone and start over. A better fishery will be established faster if you renovate. If you stay with LMB the largest ones you can reasonably expect to grow without pellets is 1 or 2 at 18", 1-2 at 14-16" and 5-10 at 7"-12".

Hybrid stripped bass work well in a small pond, but I dont think NY allows them.

Keep us advised in this thread topic as tohow things work out. Thanks and welcome to our Pond Boss Forum Family.