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Yeah, I gotta be honest, I'm feeling a little daunted at the moment. I'm very much willing to put in the work on my pond... but the most and more I read from the forums here, the less optimistic I feel haha. Seems like finding a LMB/BG balance in my pond might be a pipe dream.

Should I switch to perch and HSB or something? I like perch and HSB seem fun. Would that be an easier balance to find?

Or YP only? Or RES and YP?

I dunno. What do you guys think? It is worth trying to keep going on the BG/LMB path I'm on right now?

Absolutely correct. It was about 3" thick.

That doesn't make fish fillets, it makes fish steaks!

Hey guys, I don't know if anyone saw this post, but I'm wondering what my odds are of actually being successful in balancing BG and LMB in a small pond like this. Feeling a bit uncertain of my plan at this point.

Now's the time to decide. I'm already planning on trying to pull out the rest of my LMB this spring. Do I replace them with new, healthy LMB? Or do I take this chance to switch to YP/HSB or some other mix? Here are my thoughts:
1. I really like eating perch. They're tasty and fillet easily. They're pretty aggressive feeders too, which is fun for catching. Only downside is that they're not very big/exciting. And I'm not sure how well they would reproduce in my small pond.
2. Been reading about HSB. They sound really fun to fish for, and they certainly would solve the "overpopulation" issue. And if I removed all my LMB, I could stock 8-10" HSB... if I could find some up here. Would they do ok in a small northern pond?

Maybe I could mix perch and HSB into the bluegill pond I have now and have a diverse, healthy fishery for a while?

If HSB are off the table due to climate or pond size, I do live really close to Lake Ontario and (with some work) I can catch pretty much any species I want to stock with and start over.

Thoughts? My priorities are:
1. Healthy fish
2. Some large fish for fun angling
3. Easy maintenance

Am I giving up on the idea of a BG/LMB pond too quickly?

How are you planning to completely remove LMB from the pond? Completely kill off all fish?

I love the HSB idea. The trick is that shipping across state lines can be tricky even if they are legal in your state. They really would be a cool add on predator with advantages (no reproduction, gape size small so you don't eat your desirable fish above a certain size, great fighting, I have no idea how they taste) They cannot be safely caught or handled in very warm water temps but not sure that will ever be an issue in our northern ponds.

I don't think you have to give up on LMB/BG as the primary mix in your ponds.

With the options of HSB and SMB, you have some fish that do OK in cooler waters and coexist with LMB.

There are no absolutes when dealing with ponds. You may have a balance one year, or season, and that could change next year or next season.

Don't be discouraged. The journey is worth all the effort.

Ok I’ll stick with the plan. Give it a couple years and see how we’re doing.

With that said, would adding some perch into the mix as an additional forage fish for the bass be helpful? Or would they just compete with the bass for food?

The Yellow Perch would serve as both prey and predator.

If it was me, I'd add them too, but you may need some adult sizes to keep them alive.

^^^ What Sunil said. You can grow some pretty large Perch if you feed. What size perch are you accustomed to catching and eating?

Esshup, I’m used to eating perch over 10” or so. We catch smaller ones all the time, but i prefer to throw the smaller ones into my pond as snacks for my bass. Maybe I should try to catch some bigger ones and put them into the pond as breeding stock.

Dan, my first pond(I still have it) was barren when I bought the land. I stocked it with fatheads, bluegills, channel cats and bass. Nobody told me that it wouldn’t work. Well, it did, for about 5 or 6 years. I had good bass and pretty dang good cats. But, the predator/prey relationship got out of balance. The minnows spawned and over spawned. I was ignorant about balance and wound up with an oxygen crash that wiped out dang near everything.

Then, the Texas summer sunshine dried it out. When rains came, I restocked with channel cats and small bluegills. That’s worked ok. Somehow, my bluegills became green sunfish which have very limited spawns. That’s. Or a bad thing.

The cats did pretty well but with limited or no effective spawns. Remember that, in a properly stocked pond, 99% of the eggs ever laid, hatched, etc get eaten before their first birthday. Mama Nature at work and she’s a mean bitch. However, this year I see no cats feeding after everything froze over. I’ll have to restock.

BTW, this pond is a mile from the house so it doesn’t get a lot ofTLC.

One further question:

Been reading the forums here like a madman while on vacation. I keep hearing people talk about harvesting their bluegills… which seems counter productive for someone in my situation.

At my stage of the game, when I’m trying to grow a healthy forage base in my pond, should I be removing bluegills of a certain size? Seems like I should be adding as many bluegills, shiners, perch, etc as possible to my pond… not removing any.

Am I missing something? Should I be harvesting bluegills at this stage of the game?

Thanks all.

Bluegills can overpopulate in a pond, so taking some out to eat once the population is established isn't a bad thing.

Down here, growing Yellow Perch to 14"+ isn't that hard if you feed them. 15"+ takes a bit more time. 16'+ is rare, but doable with good genetics.

Dan, a bluegill is sexually mature at 3 to 4 inches. And they spawn multiple times per year. I don’t believe in removing any the first year but after that you won’t hurt anything by eating some.

I figure if I don't enjoy eating a few BG, something else will. afterall I claim to be the main predator of my pond. and to me, BG eat a little better then LMB that have been eating BG. jmo