Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations stunted large mouth and stunted bluegill

I have a 2 acre farm pond that is 40 years old. It's had it's ups and downs over the years, but for the last 5-10 years there has been virtually no fishing pressure, no culling.

This summer I have taken my 6 and 9 yo sons out a few times, and they are hooked. As expected, bass and bluegill are badly stunted. We have been keeping everything, removing a couple dozen of each so far. If I catch any bass a pound or more, they will be released. Same with large bluegill.

Are there any more specific guidelines I should be following? Also, with so many bluegill, why are the bass so stunted?

Almost 20 years ago, my 8 acre pond in Virginia was in similar condition. The bass are stunted because there are just SO many of them. They overpopulate really badly if there is no angling pressure. In many cases, the overpopulated bass prevent the bluegill from ever living to full size. When the entire bluegill population are kept in a very narrow range of sizes, competition for similar food sources stunts their growth. This in turn reduces their spawning success, which causes the bass to grow slowly and also confines them to a narrow range of sizes.

The best thing you can do is to record the relative weights of everything you catch. If the bass in any size category are underweight, cull them. I would not be surprised if you found that even the ones from 1-2 pounds are underweight and need to be culled. So as you keep records of relative weights, be prepared to adjust your culling strategy.

Another thing that really helped me get the food chain back in order was to pellet feed the bluegill. That gets them growing and spawning again. In a small pond like yours it's not a terribly expensive proposition. Ever since I was a kid I loved throwing pellets out and watching the fish gobble them up. Just don't over-feed as that is bad for the water quality.

Also, do you have any species that may be competing with your bass such as crappie or any big catfish?

It is unusual to have both BG and LMB stunted unless there is another species present.

A general rule of thumb is to cull 20 lbs of LMB per acre in a stunted pond. It can be more or less depending on the facts.

Thanks guys. No other species currently in the pond. When in initially stocked 40 years ago, there were 50 channel cats put in, but they never reproduced. Most were poached by trespassers in the early 80's. Last one was seen in the summer of 02, when the pond was near empty from sever drought. I think most of the fish were lost that summer. Following year I put in 13 2# F1 LMB and they really took off. In 5 years we had some real monsters. But then I was away for a few years and haven't fished much since. I assume those are all gone.

What do I do about the blue gill now? Take out as many as I can until the bass start getting some size? I haven't measured them, but the largest I am getting are on the small side to fillet. There plenty of beds and they are actively breeding. We also have snapping turtles and herons. Not sure how much impact they have.

I have taken my sons (6&9) out several times now...they have learned to cast and fish with a small rod& reel and love it. We have taken 50-60 1/2 #ish lmb out so far and dozens of blue gill. The largest LMB we have caught so far was only 12-13oz, and I threw that one back.

Tonight we took the canoe out for the first time. Only caught 3 small bass. Then I got a huge hit and the canoe started getting dragged. When I got him up to where I could see him...and he could see the boat...he snapped the line in a flash. Very nice LMB. I'm not a good judge of weight under such circumstances but that's one of the largest I've ever seen, possibly 6# or more.

Very excited to know there are still some good ones in there. Now I need to get a better line setup. Hope the hook/line don't hurt him.