Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations What do I have here?

I live in Florida but have 18 acres in NC that has a 1 and 1/2 acre pond on the property. It is stream fed with snow melt and the stream dries up in the early summer. The pond has a 4.5 foot average depth with the deepest part being about 6 feet near the spillway.

I fished the pond for the first time in early July, I bought the property in Nov. of 2013. It had been for sale for quite some time and likely was not managed for a long time. To my surprise in about 4 hrs worth of fishing throughout the weekend, I caught 22 bass. Only one fish was smaller than 12" and the largest was over 18". I decided on the final day to drown some night crawlers for bluegill. Again to my surprise, I caught about 10 gills that were larger than my hand and only one smaller one.

My thinking is that this pond has a very good "balance" going on. The thing about catching the gills was that I really had to work for them. They were not schooled up and I picked one here and one there never more than one in a spot. I'd like to increase the population density but I certainly don't want to mess up the balance. I noticed two spots in the pond that had a cluster of about a dozen gill nests, there are obviously some fish there. I also caught a solitary crappie that was of decent size. I don't think that there are many of them though. I have no prior knowledge of what was stocked in the pond. Primary cover is lily pads and some tall grass. Any suggestions on what I should do to manage this pond? I am contemplating making the pond a bit larger in size. But again, I don't want to screw it up. I do want to add fat head minnows to the mix. I was thinking about 10lbs or so for the first stocking. I noticed my bass were fixated on the dragon flies that articular weekend. I thought the FHM's would be a decent addition to the food chain. Any thoughts are appreciated.

FHM won't add much to the food chain other than a quick snack, their presence in the pond will be temporary and fleeting. IMO it would be better to feed your BG and add more spawning substrate (pea gravel) for them.

Fathead minnows are nothing more than a snack for bass in an established pond. It takes 10 lbs. of fatheads to produce one pound of predator fish. Biggest scam going for SOME hatcheries to recommend fatheads for an established pond. Bluegill are your best forage for bass as they very prolific and not as slow moving as fatheads.

Here we recommend fatheads in a new pond before the predator fish are established and allow them to reproduce for the summer. It will give the fingerling bass a headstart before the bluegill reproduce.

That said if you have a pond without bass it can work, such as a pellet fed yellow perch pond with only females perch such as one of my ponds. I having reproducing fatheads to provide forage for the perch in the winter.

From your description I would not call it a trophy pond, but rather a pan fish pond. Which does not really matter what you call it. What matters is if it meets your goals as a fishery.

I'm only 2-3 years into managing my fish in ponds, so what I say is more parroting what I have learned here on PBF. So what I am about to say may and should be corrected by the experts that have been doing it for many years. But having some extra time this morning, I'll take a stab at it and let them correct me where I am wrong.

Your pond to me sounds like it is too bass heavy to produce trophy bass. In other words if you want to catch large LMB you want to reduce the bass numbers so there will be fewer bass. This will allow your forage base to grow (more BG and more small BG) and give the remaining bass more food to grow bigger. That is if you want bigger bass and don't care so much about catching BG.

What you have now is likely very hungry bass in large enough numbers that keep the smaller BG wiped out before they get much size. The only BG remaining are the large breeders that are too big for the LMB to eat. If you want to catch large BG and don't care about large LMB so much, you might already be at the ponds natural carrying capacity and so not much to change. But if you want to see more small BG and some larger LMB, you likely need to cull some of the less desirable LMB.

That is the way I see your pond as you describe it. Adding more food to the food chain via a feeder would definitely improve what you have, but can cause other management problems. Where you are an absentee owner, feeding might not be an easy option for you. Removing some LMB and starting a feeding program might really make your pond come to life. Feeding the BG and making them prosper leads to the LMB having much more to eat.

Same disclaimer as Snrub -- Not an expert.

I would also cull out every crappie regardless of size. It is well documented here that crappie and LMB of any size aren't likely in a small (perhaps under 15 acre) body of water.

Be prepared to remove dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of bass less than 15 or so inches long.

I am not sure this body of water holds that many small bass, like I said, I saw 1 under 12". It was really surprising to me that I didn't catch many small fish at all....both bass and BG's. I will forego the FHM idea. I'd honestly like to add shiners but I don't know if I can get them in my area.