Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations What to remove

I stocked 150 BG, 30 LMB, & 15 CC in June of '07. Since then I have removed 70-80 BG and 4-5 LMB. Where do I go from here. I intend on removing all the CC. I have fed since stocking using generic brands of food, this year i will be feeding AM 500. My pond is 1/4 acre. Looking to improve the size of BG and LMB if possible. I will be installing an aerator.

What are the sizes of BG and LMB right now and what does the population of each look like? Feeding the BG good food should help their growth, do your LMB eat feed, too? The common method of increasing BG size is to have lots of small, hungry LMB that eat the young BG and allow a smaller number of BG to grow to larger sizes. However, if yours are being fed competition for food shouldn't be an issue, I don't think. Removing any small, runty LMB will help the remaining ones grow as it'll lessen the competition and allow the remaining ones access to a higher percentage of available forage.

A 1/4 acre only supports a VERY limited amount of biomass... It probably will only support 30-40 pounds of bass at most. Managing a reproducing fishery in such a small body of water is a real challenge. If it were me, I would poison off your fish and start over utilizing a set of none reproducing fish such as a HBG/CC/HSB fishery where you can manage numbers through stocking and harvesting without the worry/limited worry of reproduction. That combination can also handle heavier fishing pressure better as well.

Agreed!!

Solid advice CJB.. but not Many people appeal to killing everything and starting over. I'm not one of those people lol..

I am not either. I plan on checking weights and lengths this season and I can remove the smaller bass. We caught 5 BG the other day and they were 8-10" and I'm guessing around 3/4 of a pound. Think I will continue to work with what I have.

I think I misunderstood you. I do not want to kill everything and start over.

Then you will need to catch and remove large numbers of LMB and BG and expect extremely hook shy difficult to catch bass.

Say your pond supports 40 pounds of bass. That's for example, one 5 pound bass, two 4 pound bass, four 3 pound bass, four 2 pound and 7 1 pound bass. That totals 18 bass in your whole pond. Doesn't take long to make them extremely hook shy and smart! Just realize your limitations and set your goals accordingly...

Consider removing as many bass as you can via hook and line and replacing some with feed trained bass. That would allow you to produce a few more pounds of bass per acre with a feeding program.

Did you catch any smaller BG? I think any size LMB would have trouble eating an 8-10" BG. If you're not catching any smaller ones it's probably because they're all getting eaten by the small bass. You'll probably need some smaller size classes of BG to encourage LMB growth. As suggested, removing all the LMB you can catch would be a good start if you desire trophy sized fished with what you have to work with.