Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Adding Green Sunfish for forage to existing pond

Hello. I am trying to raise my forage for LMB in an 8 acre watershed. I have some nearby ponds that I want to seine and trap fish from and add to my 8 acre pond for forage. one of the ponds is about an acre and has mostly green sunfish. As long as I'm not adding large adult fish and only the small ones would it be ok to add these sunfish for LMB forage? I understand that they could compete with the bass if they are more established but I don't think there would be much recruitment from them with an already established population of LMB. Am I on the right track here or should I focus on only adding BG?

Thanks in advance

Focus on bluegills. Stay away from the greenies!

What's the current bluegill population like?

The current bluegill population seems to be very strong. You can catch pound size bigger than your hand fish on about every cast. We don't see a whole lot of smaller ones. That's why I'm adding a ton of structure for the fry to have a better chance to develop before the bass devour them. I read another thread here that basically said because the sunfish do not reproduce well they will not really begin to compete with the bass if the population is already established. There are a few sunfish in there already, i'm guessing that wash in from a dryish creek that feeds it when it rains. When fishing for bluegills you might catch one huge beautiful sunfish. But only about 1 in 25. I don't expect adding sunfish will do a whole lot. I just wanted to make sure that if I have a batch that is possibly sunfish instead of bluegill that it would be ok. I appreciate the input!!

Sounds like you should consider removing some bass instead of trying to feed them. What is your LMB population like?

I second removing undersized Largemouth. You will see results much more quickly by going that route.

How many pounds of sunfish do you think you can add per year?

I would remove some of the smaller more abundent LMB as well, in addition if you are not pellet feeding your BG I would start. Once enough LMB have been removed you will likely see a decline in the the body condition of your BG due to the increased numbers and competition among the BG. Supplemental feeding your BG should help increase the number of fry that they hatch when spawning, it will work its way up the food chain to your remaining LMB.

I like the green sunfish and mix them with bluegills in several ponds. Although they are less prolific and don't get quite as large as the bluegill, they will out fight them every time.

I like green sunfish too but have never caught one in Va.,I have caught many in Ky.

Easier to remove LMB then add enough forage IMO.

If you add more forage to the mix, you will only increase the numbers of small LMB needing to be removed. Any route you choose will ultimately lead to the need to remove the smaller, overpopulated LMB, unless your goal is huge BG.

First off thank you everyone for your thoughts.

We are removing every small bass we catch. Anything that is under a pound and a half. Anything that is 24 oz. goes back. We use digital scales although we are at the point now where we can guess them within about 3 ounces. Last year between a buddy of mine and me we took out close to 200 lbs of bass. I am only able to really fish the pond one weekend a year at this point. I have posted other threads and understand now that we need to be taking out the CC as well. They are all over 5 lbs. I don't think there is any recruitment of them because of all the bass. So where I'm at now is thinking that adding with the removal of large CC and every small LMB we catch we will also add some forage for the remaining bass and continued recruitment of forage for them. Hopefully all the structure I am planning on adding in march will also add to the fry survival and more forage. From what I've read about the green sunfish I will not have to worry much about them taking over and becoming anytnig more than food for the bass with all the bass in there right now.

Thanks again!!

bobby rice: To answer your question about the LMB pop.... There are too many. Occasinally we will catch one over 4 pounds. Most every single fish we catch is under a pound and a half. A few years ago we caught some 6's and we hope there are still some large fish in there. I think at this point the small ones hammer the lure before a large one does.

In your limited time to fish, I would think about stringing out a trot line for the CC when you are there.

esshup that's kind of what we have done in the past. I made some cut up nasty hot dogs prior to the trip a couple years ago. hot dogs with garlic, anice, cheese, etc... I let them sit in the jar for about a month. Since we do a lot of float tube fishing i thought we could do jug lines with the hot dogs. I was rigging them up and had a fish on before i had 3 or 4 done. So off it went all the way across the pond. I finally tracked it down and it had a 3 pound bass on it. another one had a fish that got off. So then we thought better than chasing them all around the lake we made sort of a make shift jug line/ trot line with 6 or 8 jugs going out. I used a concrete block at one end. Then marked each line going down with a jug. We ended up catching 5 0r 6 6-8 lb catfish that day. The catfish that are in there are all large, apparently from the initial stocking of the pond back in 2001ish. I haven't seen any recruitment at all or any smaller catfish but we rarely fish for them. We fish primarily for bass

Ivory soap also works... chicken or beef livers.... small bluegill.... countless choices.

yeah they aren't too picky are they? where are you at in ok?

Andrew, I'd add body condition to my culling guidlines. Any fish that looked underweiaght in the slightest would go and and a really healthy looking small LMB would stay....

That makes sense rainman. Thanks. So if i am following this has to do with keeping the best genetics and possibly the larger fish that is not as fat is maybe older and more stunted?

It removes some of the older fish in the decline of life....one in an otherwise well fed size class, yet is in a less healthy condition is not an efficient hunter...so yes, partially for genetics and predatory tendencies.

I should have added, "underweight in the slightest" once same size class fish over 2 pounds begin looking healthier...

Adding those tendencies, body conditions will help you keep the naturally more aggressive, faster growing fish, and not just aggressively biting a lure because of starvation.

That makes sense rainman.

I have a friend that works for the Oklahoma Wildlife. He has a buddy that's a biologist that he described the pond to. He told him that he thinks we should be removing every fish we catch regardless of species or size and only return the larger bass that are 3 pounds or larger. It seems to me that you would want to leave all the blugill in and Rainman I agree with what you have said about returning the healthiest, chunky smaller fish.

Hard to know what to do!!

I seldom remove a bluegill.