The second and third years after stocking are the most exciting. The carrying capacity of the pond has not been met and the bass grow like crazy and are all fat and shaped like footballs and they take artificial bait readily because most of them have never been caught before. There are tons of bluegill, all be it small, and the pond is in an explosive growth that you will not see again. Then about the third year, it all slows down and begins to assume a more stable and �normal� state. At that point, carrying capacity is nearly achieved and to achieve the goals you stated, you need to start taking your smaller bass out in order to let the bigger fish have enough to eat. Aggressive harvest of smaller bass is needed. This will be much harder than you imagine. Once a bass has been caught a time or two, it will learn not to bite. All of a sudden those afternoons when you went out to your pond and would easily catch fish will be more difficult. The general rule of thumb is to harvest 30-50 pounds of bass per acre per year under 16�. In other words, release all fish over 16� and harvest all others until the number of pounds as outlined above has been met. If you catch a beautiful, fat and sassy 14� fish that has a WR of 120, of course throw it back, but get rid of that 30-50 lbs per acre, and do this every year. As far as the bluegill go, it�s a little easier. Catch a bunch of them and figure out what is the largest class size you have. These are your original stockers. Throw all of them back. Don�t keep any of them, but keep any of the others that are smaller that you wish to keep (within reason). If you leave those large stockers behind, you won�t hurt your bluegill population much by taking smaller fish. After several years, if you start to see the WR of your bass go down, then you know you need to take more bass per year out. The vast majority of us fail to keep up with taking enough bass out per year and then they become stunted. Good luck, and enjoy your pond!
Last edited by DrWizz; 12/26/19 12:47 AM.
