My family recently completed a long term goal of building a 1-2 acre pond. I have stocked 4lbs of Fatheads and 3lbs of Golden Shiners. This year nothing else will be introduced. I have noticed plenty of insects and tadpoles in the water as well. The main goal of this is to have high quality fish. My brother wants bluegill for the kids. I don't think size is much of a concern. I would like large bass, but they don't have to be monsters. I would like to commonly catch 2lb or bigger bass fairly regularly.

My Questions:

1. Will fathead minnows spawn their first year? The ones we got from the fish guy were smaller than I thought they would be. I have no idea how old they were. I was thinking they would be the size you would use for Walleye fishing. They were about 1.5" if I had to guess.

2. Same question about Golden shiners. They were also fairly small.

3. The next is timing with the Bluegill and Bass. I was going to transplant bluegill from a pond about 30YDS away. They say 1000 fingerlings per acre. How many adult female bluegill would I need to put in?

4. I was thinking we should wait another year before I put the bass in. I also have access to 12" bass, but they have worms and are stunted. I don't want to put a 4-6 year old stunted bass to eat all of my bait fish. How many fingerlings should I put in? I was thinking like 50.

My main concern is the bluegill becoming overpopulated. Can someone help me with the timing.

Thanks so much,

Jake