As mentioned suggested stocking ratios of forage to LMB will vary depending on ones goals or the goals of the person advising you or selling you the fish. High BG:LMB ratio usually results in lots of or an over population of little BG and big fat fast growing bass - the road to trophy bass. Fewer BG and more bass per acre such as 500:100 is a path toward larger panfish and general bass fishing with a good number of all sizes. This path is where stocking bass early with BG or soon after bluegill is mostly used.
Feeding the fish and adjusting the numbers can help change the balance of BG to LMB and their average sizes.
James Y says "...a customer had high forage population and low LMB and the BG were eating all the LMB young. The bass had zero recruitment and the customer eventually had to stock more to correct the issue." This does happen. When BG numbers become more toward over abundant their food items become limiting which results in slow BG growth and lots of very hungry small aggressive fish. These small fish will surround bass nests and rob eggs and eat fry thus limiting bass recruitment,, and in severe overpopulation conditions there is no bass recruitment. The bass in these ponds tend to be few in number and quite large. Having to add bass into a pond like this would be one way to grow large bass and not worry about bass overpopulation.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 08/01/14 08:32 AM.
