More options, but they should be considered for this new Texas 3/4 ac pond and many other pond stockings. Reminder his GOAL is - "My goal for the pond is to grow some bigger bluegill and fun fishing for my Girls (and myself). I had not planned on incorporating LMB.... & no catfish".
Generally having bigger BG means heavy predation is required especially in TX where BG spawn multiple times maybe 4 times per year or BG spawns occur regularly throughout the summer. This means there will be lots of small BG that could easily result in 'snrubs' situation as noted above - "have loads of 6"-8" BG, but not many of the nicer larger ones". This is due to lack of predation of small BG in the 1/2"-3" sizes that are eaten primarily by young bass 2"-14". Generally BG are more numerous in a pond as BG are smaller (many more BG at 1"-2" compared to those at 3"-5", compared to those at 6"-8". Reminder LMbass primarily prefer to eat sunfish 3 X smaller than the bass; thus smaller bass eat smaller BG. When one size group of BG are overabundant this means the appropriate sized predator is lacking in numbers.
I am doubtful that only HSB will be able to control the high numbers of CNBG in DRG's situation and for his goals - ""goal for the pond is to grow some bigger bluegill and fun fishing for my Girls (and myself)"". HSB will not provide numerous small young of year, and 2 yr old bass to control numerous annual spawns and a proliferation of little CNBG.
After rethinking my prior post and suggestions above, I now think to best achieve his goals with the easiest method, his pond should be LMB abundant or at least have a decent number of stocker LMB of 65-80/ac or even as suggested 100-110/ac. Small hungry bass are easy to catch and remove. Small LMB of 6"-14" when common make general fish catching more exciting and allows high catch rates and numerous LMB will be easy to catch and will result in bigger average size BG. Generally the more small bass present the bigger the CNGB will become. Both goals of ""grow some bigger bluegill and fun fishing for my Girls and others"".
I am very doubtful that unless smaller HSB are annually added to the pond as something to ANNUALLY mainly crop small CNBG, the goals of DRG will not be easily achieved. If he has to manually remove lots of small BG per year this will become laborious and maybe not much fun. Large bass are not his goal; high catch rates of nice fun, catchable fish are.
Also note - when LMB are too few per acre with BG, overabundant BG can actually keep the LMB from producing small bass each year by eating most if not all bass eggs and fry. This has occurred in snrub's and many other ponds. So if DRG does not stock enough bass or too few LM stockers survive, over abundant BG can still occur when LMB are present. The original bass keep getting bigger and few if any new bass are added naturally from reproduction each year. IMO he does not want to annually have to add small predators to his pond. It would work, but it is inconvenient.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 03/22/18 10:38 AM.
