Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Large Mouth Bass Advice Needed ASAP

Ok we just fished one of our old ponds about a week ago that we had not caught any fish out of in more than 5 years. We have been wanting to renovate it but lack of funds have stopped that.

Anyway my mother-in-law insisted we fish it, and can you believe it when it was all said and done we pulled out 3 LMB all were 19 inches and 3.25 pounds. I think they were a little poor and could use some food. But what the heck could I stock a pond that may be full of this size of LMB?

So I guess my question is should we cull these LMB if so how many, or release them and figure out someway to feed them.

I have not caught any BG in there either and did add a few last year, but after seeing these fish I am sure they were a snack.

Please let me know your thoughts as we plan to hit the pond again in the morning and I would like to know my options and recommendations from you guys.

Thanks in advance.

You could try stocking some GIGANTIC bluegill in hopes that they spawn and kick start the food chain. Its hard when you have bass that are that large already.

Tilapia could be another good choice. If you get some really big Tilapia they might take the heat off of the bluegill population and help them take a hold in your pond.

Golden shiners could be another good choice, but again you will need massive adults.

One thing that you will want to consider before adding any forage to the pond is how many bass do you have in there? You may want to remove SOME of them to give your forage a better chance at survival. In fact, if you pull out any bass under 12" you will be pulling the bass that eat the smaller bluegill. Hopefully with a reduced number of smaller bass your bluegill will make it to a size where they can spawn.

You will also want to consider evaluating the cover for forage in your pond. Bluegills can use large rock piles, pallet stacks, christmas trees, PVC structures, or pretty much anything you can find. Add some cover and that will give them an edge too.

Remove all LMB you can catch.

I am thinking that the large bass are keeping the small ones in check, because since there are many if any BG in the pond I think they have to eat each other.

I plan to keep what I catch as I am sure I can not catch them all.

I have thought about adding some crappie since the larger bass would probably keep them in check or at least the once that stunt at 5-7 inches, and they lucking ones may grow.

Again I need something for them to eat as well.

I will keep watching this post to see what all everyone has to say as I plan to go tomorrow and would like as many recommendations as I could get before culling too many fish.

Thanks

Update:

Went back this past weekend and caugth 1 more 3 pound LMB, this one was on the bank, caught on a small spinner, full of eggs.

I would put in a couple hundred copper nose bluegill, as long as you have cover. I would return the 3 pounders and take as many smaller bass as you can get out. I added 400 cnbg to my 2 acre pond that had no bait fish, and many many small stunted bass. I now have mature cnbg and the food chain seems in balance now. I fished the pond hard, throwing many small bass on the bank. It can be done. Larger bass prefer larger prey, so they are probably eating smaller bass. Small cnbg aren't that expensive. You could also catch large Bg and release them, but they might be more attractive prey than the smaller BG.