David, welcome to Pond Boss. What part of Texas are you in? Lots of difference between Amarillo, El Paso, Texarkana, and the Big Thicket; especially when it concerns ponds.

You've gotten some good advice by some guys that know exactly what they are doing.

Neither angling, seining nor shocking is really all that effective at removing fish. The fish get use to the lures or bait and become conditioned. In other words, they get lockjaw. Shocking is mainly for sampling and won't get over 1% of the fish. With a seine, you'll only get shallow water fish and bass are notorious for dodging seines.

By now, you have figured out that you have done it all backwards. There is nothing unusual about stocking errors and a lot of people have made the mistake of what we call bucket and seine stocking. It seems simple but has very little chance of success in the long run. And, overall, you will find that stocking is the least expensive part of the process to having a well balanced pond.

I often use the illustration of cows in a pasture. You have stocked the equivalent of a bunch of young heifers in a pasture with very little grass. They continually over eat the grass and it never has a chance to grow. The ground bakes because nothing protects it from the sun. The cows do poorly and starve due to limited forage. The cows are the predator and the grass is the prey. It's the same with ponds and we often call BG/CNBG forage or fodder for bass.

If it were me, and it's not, I would probably rotenone the whole thing and start over. That's tough to do but I've tried it the other ways to no avail. You can't buy the rotenone and will have to hire a licensed applicator for that. But, overall, it will be your cheapest and most satisfying alternative.

Buy a feeder or 2 and feed the fish a good quality fish food. Resist the temptation to feed dog food or bread.

Start over with 2,000 small bluegills per acre, about 3 or 4 hundred Redear Sunfish per acre and about 5 pounds per acre of fathead minnows. Feed the fish. Resist the urge to add bass until the second year. If you decide to do it different and bucket stock again(it's up to you) wait until the 3rd year to start adding bass. Those things are eating and spawning machines.Then stock about 50 small bass per acre. I like some Florida genetics but not pure Floridas. Those things are too hard to catch and just aren't much fun. After a couple of years, start culling everything under 12 inches. After a couple more years start culling everything under 15 inches.

Monitor the body condition of the fish you catch and especially the BG. As my cow illustration above indicates, the best cattle rancher is a grass farmer. The condition and various sizes of the BG will be a determinant of whether your predator/prey relationship is correct and being correctly maintained.

Another thing I often say is to stock bass when they go to sleep with their mouth open and wake up with a full belly.

Your number one tool will be a continuous log of your observations of water conditions and the fish body conditions.

Oh yeah, take a water sample and send it to TAMU for analysis. Post the results here. This is a fairly important step.

Have fun and don't lie to your wife about the costs. You're gonna get caught and you just think you have problems now.

BTW, don't feel bad about what you have done. An awful lot of other people have done it and had to start over. One of them is me.

Last edited by Dave Davidson1; 03/26/14 05:18 AM.
It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP Grandpa