Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Sunfish-Including Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass est. of fish in pond

Is there a theoritical equation for estimating fish in a pond.
I have 1 ac. pond aprox 12 foot deep. I catch bass 15" long
bluegill 5 -7" long, catfish 18" long.
Pond was stocked Oct. of 2008 500-1000 bluegill 100 catfish, in june 2009 70 bass were put in. Fish were very small when put in. This is a 53 year old pond that hadnt had fish in it since 1980.
Also are these size of fish that I should expect for length of time in pond. I live in southeast Iowa.
Curious if there is a equation to estimate fish in pond example fish caught/size of fish/size of pond/fishing hours/
I realize this would be a crude estimate but wonder if any one had some input?

Longcreek, as you can see from a lack of responses... There really isn't a sure fire way to say the number of fish in a pond. Poundage of fish can be estimated, but even that is a SWAG.

Back in the 1950s and 60s, my uncle had about an 80 acre lake on his farm in Northern Wisconsin. He estimated that it would support about 200 lbs. of various fish per acre. He always told me that the water could hold 200 lbs./acre of tiny fish, or it could hold 200 lbs./acre of a mix of big and little fish. He was ahead of his time in thinking, and was very serious about culling. What wasn't big enough to be eaten was turned into vegetable garden fertilizer or given to the chickens.

Maybe one of our pros can give us an idea of today's pond carrying capacity for unfertilized ponds, fertilized ponds, and ponds that have feeders.

Keeping accurate size logs of all fish caught can provide very good insight into what is in the pond.

Ken

There's a thread in the archives that discussed carrying capacity.