I've been doing more research over the last week or so and have been at the pond daily. Nothing real interesting going on to report except for a large (probably over 20 lbs) grass carp dead. I added a second aerator line and stone to our existing windmill. Who knows why it died, but we've had the air stone for awhile and it's getting pretty hot so I decided to get it taken care of.
I think we're getting a game plan together for the coontail. It's going to cost about $3,000 next spring to treat the 5 acres with whitecap and 8 gallons of aquashade but I think that may get rid of the weeds, hopefully allowing the bass to get the bluegill back under control.
For now I am taking esshup's advice and leaving the bluegill alone.
When feeding the last week or so, nothing has really been coming in except the bluegill, and they come in by the hundreds. You can spot a couple decent ones here and there but most are about 3-4". Every now and then a large bass will sneak in and ambush a bluegill, which is pretty neat to watch.
I'm going to get a bucket of minnows and go fishing for a day this weekend and I'll post weights and lengths of any of the bass and large bluegill I catch, and pictures.
I'm sure you all know this but this is an awesome site for information! I've learned a ton just browsing through some of the different threads here.
I've been thinking about this a lot and I think I might be understanding the big picture here a little better now.
I still need to go out and do some serious fishing and record all the lengths and weights and take pictures. Hopefully I can get to that this weekend.
Regardless of how we end up treating the weeds, would it hurt to stock some more LMB and CC this year? I'd like to pick up 250 LMB and another 300 CC. From the way the numbers of small bluegill look, all the new fish should all have plenty of food, right?
Just judging from many hours of unsuccessful catfishing and feeding the fish for the last 2 months, I don't think there are many catfish except the 200 4-6" ones (CC) we stocked this year, a couple large albinos and maybe a half a dozen large blue cats (and the bullheads).
I think the bass are plentiful but there are just a ton of small bluegill. I'm thinking 250 in 5 acres shouldn't hurt since we can always remove some if we find there are too many.
These are honestly all just guesses and observations. Any help or advice would be appreciated!
You really need a lot of data points from fishing to evaluate the pond. Until then you're really just stumbling in the dark. If you still can't catch anything, consider an electrofishing survey.
You really need a lot of data points from fishing to evaluate the pond. Until then you're really just stumbling in the dark. If you still can't catch anything, consider an electrofishing survey.
I know, I've been slackin'. Work has kept me pretty busy but I'm trying to get back into the project.
I picked up a small pelican bass boat for cruising around the pond and tonight my 5 year old daughter and I tried it out. We both had a blast. This was pretty much just a test run for the boat but I did end up catching a nice crappie, which we don't see too often in there.
Luckily I had both a camera and several witnesses because there's a few that don't think we have any crappie in there at all. This was was just over 14" but I did not get a weight. He was photographed and released.
My pond is in 
