Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Urea

I'm about to start over with a friends 1 acre pond for Quality LMB (it was bass crowded) We used rotenone and killed off all of our fish. We want to do it right so I'd like to start at the bottom of the chain and get the plankton bloom going, I think I can do this with about 50-100 LB of UREA, (does anyone ever use UREA to promote the bloom?) then add 20 lb FHM the forage base CNBG, LMB. I'm thinking about starting on the bloom and FHM asap. Does anyone have any stocking recommendations for trophy LMB In a 1 acre pond? The # 1 priority for us is to grow some LMB over 6 pounds for women & kids to catch (or me haha)...

Hey beezaboy,

Trophy LMB in a 1 acre pond? 6 lbs or bigger?? Not saying it can't be done but that's going to be tough. 6 lbs plus bass need space and a lot of it! You may be able to get a couple in there that size, but not many. I am no expert, but I think your goals are a little high for a 1 acre pond. Maybe more like 2 to 3 lbs bass with some 4 ish lbs, might be more realistic but lets here what the experts have to say first.

Good luck buddy,

Have you considered all female and/or feed trained?

All female bass would be ideal if growing trophy bass in a 1 acre pond is the goal.

Urea has 60# of nitrogen per 100# of fertilizer IIRC. Usually the limiting factor in a bloom is P, not N.

Do you guys really think he can have 6 plus pound LMB in a 1 acre pond?? If so how many are we talking about here? If he fertilizes right maybe what 7 or 8 bass total? Maybe 10 tops? Doesn't sound realistic to me after everything I have read on this forum. Confused? I can see maybe a couple if all is right in his pond but, it's not going to be easy. Course nothin ever worth having is easy most of the time.

All the large bass caught around here are in at least 3 or 4 acre ponds.

I pulled a dead bass from my 1/3 acre pond that was 20.5 inches / 5lbs a few weeks ago. It was speared by a heron so it still had some grow time left. It was one of my feed trained bass stocked in May 08 at 10 inches. Your best chance of big bass in small ponds would be feed trained bass and lots of aquamax.

RC, one or 2 if not feed trained. and if both sexes were stocked. It would be easier to accomplish if all the LMB were female, but if both sexes were stocked, then the number of larger LMB would be greatly diminished.

In that pond, I'd prefer to stock only female feed trained LMB and stay on top of a very good feeding program, getting them to eat LMB pellets ASAP.

Hey Esshup,

That makes more since. Thanks for clearing that up! I guess I need to get on some kind of pellet plan for my BG. Seems everyone talks about how big they get if you feed. I guess it's time to look into it.

RC, the pellets work if the BG eat them. I switched from 32% floating generic catfish food to AM 500/600 and saw a big jump in the BG size in one year. There are quite a few of 9" and bigger BG in my pond now, and they aren't even eating like crazy.

Thanks for the input, I'll send pics after we catch some trophies.

esshup, how did your bluegill grow in one year while feeding Aquamax?

They put on roughly an inch+ more growth over the 32% generic catfish chow. A friend that has BG that feed better than mine do saw about double that growth on wild fish that he transferred to his pond. I guess the wild fish were trained by his smaller pellet trained hatchery fish. His transferred fish went from 7" to 9"+ in a year. It was easy to distinguish the wild fish from the hatchery fish as they were roughly 3" larger when transferred.

Oh that is quite a difference. We just need to find a dealer that carries Aquamax now.