Originally Posted By: 3z3k3l
ok, so I have a 1/4 acre pond...(soon to be renovated to 1/2 acre or more)
This spring 2015 I stocked 1lb of bluegill, 1lb of threadfin shad...
I waited all summer before I was going to stock some LMB... I had successful bluegill spawns over the summer...but we also had a few floods..and some invasive species got into the pond..
GSF and Bullhead and even a few small LMB..
The problem was I had 2 clouds of baby bullheads probably 100-200 each swimming around my pond for the past 4 weeks.. and no predators to do anything....so on the recommendation of someone on my post, they told me to stock a few bass....but before I did stock some bass, I stocked another 1lb of threadfin and 1lb of bluegill..

Stocking
Well maybe I went a little overboard.. I have stocked 6 bass...not just any bass
two are 2lbers
three are 4lbers
one is a 5lber...
I went to a local fishing hole and caught a few of these guys and moved them in... Well the good news is I don't have a bullhead problem anymore..within 1 week I did not see the balls of catfish anymore..bad news is..now I gotta feed these girls. (I want these girls to be the Rosie O'donnell sisters..)

So I went to a local community pond that had a stunted bluegill population and caught 110 multiple size fish and moved them.
So I did the math and even with 110... that is still only 18 bluegill per bass..(Not including frogs, threadfin and previous bluegill/yoy, gsf, bullhead) etc..

I know bass are opportunistic feeders and will eat even if they are not "hungry" i.e like this guy feeding his bass: "bass eats 36 goldfish a day"

So I have a 2 part question:
So how many full grown bluegill will a large bass eat a day? and how long will that sustain them? Lets say she eats 2 bluegill 1/4lb each...so she has 1/2 in her belly...how long will that sustain her? 1 day, 2 days? a week?



Thanks


I'm far from an expert, but until one shows up I'll try to help.

The honest answer is -- It depends. In general, predatory fish like LMB have to eat 10 lb of fish to gain 1 lb themselves. So 1/2 lb in her belly will eventually translate, under normal conditions, to a gain of .05 lbs, or perhaps 6/10 of an ounce in weight.

But "normal conditions" is the kicker. If the water is cool or cold, LMB metabolism slows and perhaps fewer calories are used to move around. Result: LMB remains full longer, and/or gains more weight from same food. Hot water conditions would be the reverse.

And how hard did the LMB have to work to catch the BG in the first place? LMB that have to swim a lot burn off more calories than those that don't. That's one of the reasons why bass get bigger when they have a small hunting area around some type of cover or structure rather than cruising large areas to find food.

I don't have exact numbers, obviously. Given the cool conditions we have now, I suspect the bass will be fine for a while with 1/2 lb of BG in their bellies. Specifics beyond that I leave to the pros.

7ac 2015 CNBG RES FHM 2016 TP FLMB 2017 NLMB GSH L 2018 TP & 70 HSB PK 2019 TP RBT 2020 TFS TP 25 HSB 250 F1,L,RBT -206 2021 TFS TP GSH L,-312 2022 GSH TP CR TFS RBT -234, 2023 BG TP TFS NLMB, -160