Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain stocking for quality bass

James:

I'm having a hard time keeping a healthy BG population in my pond. There are 2 reasons. 1) LOTS of predators - the LMB, and the CC. 2) My water level varies a LOT from spring to fall, so the smaller fish don't have enough cover to hide in. My water level can drop 6', but a 50" swing is more common. When the water level drops, the predators have a field day with the smaller fish. Like swimming in a bathtub. I need to put more cover in my pond, at different depths, but the problem with that is when the water level drops, then there's a LOT of stuff sticking up out of the water, or completely out of the water.

In my pond, in the past 4 years, I've stocked well over 3,000 BG of varying sizes. They are few and far between. I am in the process of yanking out every male LMB that I can identify, and I have removed about 35# of LMB from my pond this year. I still have at least one male LMB in there, because I have a school of YOY LMB swimming around. I do have SMB in the pond, and there are some males too, so its yet to be determined whether the YOY are straight LMB or meanmouth bass. (LMBxSMB)

I feed approx. 50# of AM600 a month too.

Right now I see some BG that are 2"-4", but I haven't actually had the time to do any angling for BG. I have seem some 6"-8" BG picking up pellets too. Maybe instead of trying to catch BG I should drop the Fyke Net in my pond and do a sample? I might catch some of the CC that way too. Hmmmmmmmm......... I think that's a plan! That's the problem with being in the business, everybody else's pond gets worked on while mine gets shoved to the back of the line all the time!.