Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations how many RES???

11 acre lake 24 foot at deepest point. average depth between 8 to 10 full of clam and mussel beds currently has healthy numbers of LMB,BG,BCP,HBG. How many RES should be stocked and who is best supplier for my area which is 20 miles north of muncie indiana..also lake is around 25 years old and at times fish have black spots pretty bad

You will need adult RES which can be hard to find. Do the lakes in your area Have RES? Some places are too cold for them.

His local lakes should have them. I'm 100 miles or so North of there and they're in the local lakes here.

5" or even larger RES will be needed or most will become expensive bass food. Sourcing larger RES can be a challenge as they are difficult to pellet train so few hatcheries grow them out. You may want to try to catch some larger adult RES from a local lake and transfer them. Keep in mind the legal issues possibly presented with this along with the possible transfer of disease and other unwanted hitch hikers. The next month is generally best for catching adult RES off their nests...

didnt mention that the majority of bass are 15 inch if that will help my cause I do have some RES in another smaller pond but seems like alot of work to move them to accomplish what needs to be done I wouldnt mind moving some how many adults would need to be moved to create a healthy population and how long would it take for them to get established

All depends... I'd try to move as many RES as I could. RES tend to be fickle when trying to get them to take hold into a well established pond. They will usually take hold, but generally in small numbers. A 15" bass could eat a 5" RES, keep that in mind...

200 adults would be a good start.

I can tell you this much my pond has never been better since I put 120 4 to 5 inch RES in my pond. They have cleaned up all my parasites and all my fish look awesome now! Great color no specs no parasites of any type that I can see anyway!! They are an awesome fish! And now I am starting to get a few that are pushing 1 pound!! And when you catch one that size with a 4 foot rod HOLD ON!!! It's gonna be fun!

Good Luck,

yeah Ive seen similar results in my fathers 3 acre pond it had black spots and grubs pretty bad and we stocked RES and in a couple of years you were hard pressed to find a blemish on them thats why I want to do the same to this BOW. when you guys say adult what size do do you mean 6 inches and above? I spoke to the board and what I believe we are planning on is buying some 2 to 4 inchers @ 97 cents and some 4 to 6 inchers which are $2.25 roughly and then catch some bigger ones from my dads pond and transfer them that way well have several different age classes unless you guys believe it would be better to go with all 4 to 6 inchers I just figured at the price if enough of the 2 to 4s survived it would be good to buy both sizes.. Thanks for all your input

Have you thought about a blocking net in your pond to grow ou the RES? Eric West is the expert on that method. Also, you may be surprised how many RES will take to feed if caged...Bruce, Theo and others have had success with this method. You may experience some starvation/mortality, but I think using a sinking feed or hydrated feed is working and might be an option to consider in your LMB pond.

No teejah I havent thought about that for RES but I have for forage protection that could be feasible at this lake... any comments on my post 290957 for stocking numbers and size recommendations???

If you had a lake without LMB standard stocking rates would be between 100-250 RES/Acre. You don't want to be stocking 1000-2500 RES if they are only going to become LMB forage, though. I'd explore feasibility of blocking net FIRST, or cages, then determining stocking qty. As for where to source these fish, I don't know, but I bet Scott [Essup] can help you there and could probably arrange delivery - he's in the pond/fisheries management business and is pretty resourceful. If he can't help you need to probably consider driving for them - which is worth the trip for good fish, anytime IMO.

okay I see that adding RES isnt going to be as easy as I thought I think im gonna try all suggestions given first adding as many adults as I can come up with then either use a blocking net and or cages to grow them out but Id like to just release some freely also, so to do so and prevent predation from LMB Im thinking after LMB post spawn when bass are feeding a little less would be better. when do you think the best time of year to stock and also release the RES that I may put behind blocking nets would be? There would also be some loss behind the nets from herons and kingfishers... any good prevention methods for that? How deep do you set cages?

My cages have 4' depth and a cage lid to keep out any predators and that works well. Using a blocking net the fish will more or less be on their own, just like in the main body of your pond, with the regular host of predators trying to steal a meal. I don't think your fish will be appreciably more prone to predation behind the blocking net as long as you have ample depth say up to 4'+.

Now (within the next 2 weeks) would be the best and possibly the easiest time to catch/transfer them. So much the better if you can catch them before they spawn. I rarely catch them unless they are spawning.