Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Under stocked bluegills?

Last year I had an acre pond built and last April I added 350 bg, 150 re, 1000 fatH and 100 channelC which I�ve been feeding and they look great. Because of advice from here I�m waiting to add my bass until next year.
Right now I�m adding about an 1/8 + acre 3� deep shelf with a pea gravel bottom for nesting. I will be feeding and plan to aeriate starting next year. According to stocking rates I�ve been seeing I�m lean on bg which is the main fish we fish for. I�m thinking I need to add about 450 bg and 50 re early next spring and 100 lmb late spring. I have minnows everywhere and should have a fresh bg spoon from last years fish, but is it to late to add the extra bg I want?

it's not to late to add bluegill.my guess is if you have been feeding them and adding fertiziler you should have had several spawns allready and are in pretty good shape even though you went a little lite on the bluegills.the guy's will really spawn and produce a lot of fish in a short time period.with that said,add some more if you want.but like i said you probably allready have alot of bluegill.

Most pond stocking formulas found on the web are based on the classic 1000 Bluegill to 100 Largemouth Bass recipe, which I believe was developed by Homer Swingle at Auburn University (If I got this wrong, may someone from the SEC hunt me down and kill me).
This is the "southern" formula, which works extremely well down south.
Many northern sources cut the recommended number of Bluegills (or Bluegill/Redear) to the 500 you used. The stated reason for the difference from the southern formula is usually the shorter growing season up north, requiring an extra year before the bass spawn and produce lots of predators to eat all the bluegills.
I think your intial stocking plan sounds OK and agree with Lee that if you add 100 Largemouth next spring, they will have plenty to eat. If your Bluegills did not spawn late this year, they almost certainly will next spring, making lots of fry and fingerlings for the bass to eat after they finish off the fatheads (which should have reproduced enough to last through next year or maybe beyond).

Last time I checked Mississippi was in the South, and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife Fisheries and Parks recommends the 500 bluegill/redear per acre combination. Thats how I stocked my pond back in the late fall of 2002. Everything is fine here, just need some rain, over a month without any rainfall here.

Anyways Indiana Division of Fish and Wildlife also recommends this ratio:

http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/publications/fsmgt/whatfsh.htm

I think part of the reason for the apparent differences between stocking numbers of bluegill per acre has to do with primarily the fertility and the subsequent production ability of the pond.

Obviously a more nutrient fertile pond is able to grow more numbers(pounds) of fish. I think if one checks the original details or description of the stocking recommendations, you will find that the rate of 1000 bgill/acre was for ponds what would be artifically fertilized whereas the suggestion of 500 bgill/acre was for ponds what were not fertilized. Feeding the fish pellets also increases the production capacity of a pond and more fish can be stocked or successfully grown in these conditions.

To a lesser extent than fertility the length of the growing season (norhtern vs southern ponds) MAY have some affect on the stocking rate of bgills/panfish. I am not aware of any established Fishery methods or techniques that justify more numbers can be grown or stocked in ponds with a longer growing season. Maybe a contributor or reader with experience in this area can enlighten us.