Yep, I would stock 2,000 bluegills in a new one acre pond. The window closes when the bass get big enough to wipe out the small BG as an easy snack. In the presence of bass you will probably not have to harvest and/or cull bluegills. But, it certainly doesn't hurt to keep some for the table. Most of us NEVER cull or even keep our BIG spawning bluegills.
Ponds 101:
Bass are eating and spawning machines. Further, BG have a rolling spawn in the Southern US. They will spawn 3 or 4 times per year but bass only once. And the bass still clobber them. Since you stocked tiny bass, 1-1.5 inch bluegills(cheap) should suffice at this time. The BG will spawn at 3.5-4 inches to keep the forage base going. If you wait until the bass get any bigger, they will be a quick snack.
Bass need food that is 1/4 to 1/3 their body size. And the bass need 10 pounds of forage(BG) to gain one pound. That's a lot of groceries.
95%, or more, fish that spawn will never grow big enough to reach sexual maturity. All small fish are groceries to everything bigger.
After the 2nd year, cull every bass that you catch under 13 inches to keep them from over eating the food supply and stunting. Don't worry; it will be dang tough to catch too many of them. Catch and release and too small to keep works great on public lakes but not in private ponds.
A couple of examples of the predator/prey relationship relating to the forage base.
Number one is coyotes and rabbits. When the coyotes get too abundant, they overeat the rabbit population. Then, the next years, they can't feed their pups. The pups die and the adults have a problem getting enough food to stay healthy. So, their population diminishes. Then, the rabbits boom again in the absence of predators. Nature cycles that way. But a private pond is a closed loop/environment and can't cycle unless the bass starve and die. After the bass get a good head of steam, it is almost impossible to get enough forage for them.
Next is a cattle rancher. The best cattleman is a grass farmer. The cow is the predator of the grass. If he has too many cows for the grass, the cows over graze the grass. Then the sun bakes the ground and the grass dies. If he has enough land, he practices rotational grazing. If not, he has to sell(eliminate) enough cows to meet the forage base availability prior to damaging the forage base. I did this once during a drought and had to sell all of the cows.
Coyotes/rabbits, cows/grass and bass/bluegills have a symbiotic relationship. They need each other to maintain balance. Without bass or another top predator, the bluegills will over run the pond and, more than likely, there will be an oxygen drop resulting in a fish kill to balance the numbers.
The initial stocking of bluegills would be OK had you let their numbers increase for a couple of years before adding the ultimate predator.
Redears/Shellcrackers are a great dual purpose fish. They also eat the mussels that produce flukes that attach themselves to the fish. You will see this as sores on the fish. They only spawn annually so I would stock about 200 at this time. Especially since your buddy likes them.
BTW, congrats on getting the Masters. What major?
Last edited by Dave Davidson1; 05/16/16 09:11 AM.
