Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain What to stock in a 1 acre pond for trophy BG?

What do I stock in my 1acre pond for trophy BG?

Bluegill and bass.. For a short answer lol

Look through the archives there is excellent bluegill resources.. Get to know the search you'll learn everything you would ever need to raise monster gills..

Or Male Coppernose only and feed heavily.

It isn't just a question of what to stock, but also in what proportions. Management of your pond is probably just as important.

I'm not an expert, but I expect others will chime in. My take just from reading through all of the different threads, is that you want to stock and manage the lake as the opposite of a trophy bass fishery. You want a lot of smaller bass present to consume the smaller bluegill, and no large bass, above 16-18 inches, that can eat the big BG.

I'd start with a larger than normal ratio of LMB with the hope of promoting LMB stunting and decreasing the amount of culling you have to do. Traditionally, it has been recommended that if you want a balanced bass/BG fishery, you stock about 100 bass per acre. I'm not sure how many I would stock, but I would consider a higher number of initial bass. You might ask one of the forum experts, Bruce Condello, Bob Lusk, Ewest, Cecil Baird, Dave Davidson, Bill Cody, Esshup, or Todd from Overton fisheries, etc, etc, etc, for an exact number.

In any case, start with plenty of bass, cull the larger bass, and feed the bluegill.

There are several back issues of Pondboss magazine that contain a wealth of info on growing big BG. Just this past year, the March/April issue had an excellent article outlining some techniques.

They are well worth the investment.