Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Controling my green sunfish

I need help controling my gsf population. I'm not saying I don't like them I 'm just saying there are way to many. All of themm I catch are under 5" the pond is 1.5 acres right no and 2 acres when full. There are no bass in the pond.

do you live in alaska or texas?

rotenone..

Only thing to do in my opinion would be to add LMB.

If you add LMB they should be big enough to right away start eating the smaller sized GSF. Stocking fingerling LMB does not succeed into a pond at carrying capacity of GSF. Catch some of the smaller GSF in traps, angling or seining, measure them, then stock LMB at 2X to 3X the GSF average length.

I live in Texas. And I think I'll add LMB, angle for them, And use traps.Should I totally eradicate them or leave a small pop. And do yall think any emerald shiners left. The GSF have been heavily preying on them and last fall they were very scarce.

Green Sunfish will get big, I've caught them in lakes up to 12 inches, LMB should keep the population down, the LMB will eat the smaller ones leaving you the bigger ones. There may be some emerald shiners left but the bass will probably finish them off.

Is there anyway I can save them? Like put them in a garden pond and breed them.

You can't get emerald shiners to breed in ponds. You may have golden shiners? Where did you get the shiners?

Connor, I wouldn't sweat the GSF. Left alone without a predator, any sunfish will spawn and flourish. There's not much way you can eradicate them without chemicals. The bass, if you stock them, will eat them and cut down on their numbers.

However, the GSF only spawn annually and, over time, the bass will run out of forage. Bluegill will spawn 3 or 4 times per year.

If it were me, and it's not, I would stock about 1,000 three to four inch bluegills and get them started. I would simultaneously stock about 100 4 to 6 inch bass. Within a couple of years you should have a fairly balanced fishery.

This is essentially the same formula I used to finally put a dent in my GSF population. They're still there, but no where near the typical "stunted" GSF population most people face in old farm ponds.

Finally, some reasonable talk about GSF!!!

Well, at least I didn't post about the countless GSF we have trapped and tossed out for the birds.

I think of the much maligned GSF like I do a mule. They seldom get as large as a BG but will out pull them every time.

If you tied a GSF tail to tail with a pansyass BG, it would drown the BG by forcing water backwards through its gills.

Yeah, I also started out eliminating GSF before I realized their fighting qualities. I have them in a forage pond with BG and RES and don't hesitate to stock them in my larger ponds.

I did'nt stock any fish in the pond. Just the CC. And I was talking to seny and he said it would take at least a 100 g pond for them to spawn in. And thoughts on that? Also I thought it was GSF that spawned 3-4 times per year. I'm 12 so I don't have a lot of money. 346$, 45$ in walmart giftcards, and 20$ in petsmart giftcards, and a creek with lots of different fish, and 2 of my grandparents' pond w/ 2-4 lb. bass and 1,000,000's of minnows are all my resources. So that rules out stocking fish from fisheries. Any ideas would help.

Conner, I was once in your shoes. Much of my teen years were spent catching fish from other ponds, lakes and rivers and stocking all the ponds in my neighborhood. I was lucky in that I lived in a neighborhood that had several ponds, mostly golf course and water retention ones. I learned a lot adding different fish and over the years I figured a lot of things out on my own.

If you are trying to control the GSF in the pond, angle for LMB in the 9"-12" range and put them in the pond with your GSF. I can tell you from personal experience, I had a 2 acre pond that only had GSF in it which had migrated up the feeder stream to it. There were literally thousands of stunted GSF in that pond. I only placed about 15 9"-12" LMB and maybe 20 or 30 adult BG. Within 5 years, the GSF were no longer common and the few left were mostly in the 6"-8" range. The BG had completely taken over population wise. The bass blew up in size.

If you don't add any BG, your bass will not do as well but they certainly will begin to control your GSF.

Thank you. Any thoughts on feeding the GSF food pellets and trying to get minnows stocked. I figured this would take pressure off the minnow when I stocked them. How many lbs. do you ya'll think.

I CAUGHT MY 1ST FISH OF 2011 TODAY ( 2IN GSF!!!!!!!) HaHa

To be honest, getting any species of minnow established via bait bucket in an already established pond is gonna be about impossible. GSF can learn to take pellets and will have greatly improved growth rates if pellet fed.

I know but if they were fed enough and if I stocked enough minnows could a pop. be est. ?

Conner, in all honesty, I don't think you will be able to stock enough minnows to make a difference. If you stock FHM, the GSF will eat them. It's better to stock the LMB and let them chow down on the GSF. LMB do very well on eating BG without minnows, and will do the same on the GSF.

If anything, you'd have to stock adult GSH, and the LMB will like eating them better than the GSF, so you'd be defeating the purpose of adding the LMB. (You wanted to reduce the GSF population, right?)