Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations New to me pond

Purchased property 4 months ago with a 2 acre pond...about 20 ft deep at th dam and spring fed...we catch all sizes of bass ... we average about one crappie a trip and usually it's a big one...there dosent seem to be a lot of them and not many small ones...no bluegill at all....but of course over run with green sunfish....I'm not in a situation to drain and poison....do I have any other options?

Pretty place!
What's your goal with the pond?

We don't really care about the bass...bluegill and crappie...

This appears to me to be a white crappie...which is supposed to overpopulate...... there dosent seem to be that problem.....would it help to transplant adult bluegill

I've got a smaller pond that sounds much like yours. It has crappie but no signs of stunting or overpopulation. It's got some great bass in it. I figure there is enough bass to keep the crappie population down (or the spawning habitat isn’t ideal for crappie). I also think the bass are why I don't catch a whole lot of bluegill out of it either. All just speculation on my part. I can tell you it's one of my favorite ponds to fish. Way more fun than the ponds full of stunted crappie or 10" bass.

Your statement is a little ambiguous. People can only give you helpful advice if they know your exact goals. (Which can't be perfectly attained, but good management can get you close.)

Do you primarily want a bluegill and crappie pond? (If so, you still need a lot of bass to control two species that reproduce so prolifically.)

If you do want a BG/WCP pond, which is your priority:

1.) Trophy size
2.) Eating size
3.) Catchability



P.S. If your thread gets a lot of replies, people will switch to using acronyms. BG = bluegill, WCP = white crappie, LMB = largemouth bass

P.P.S. Some deep ponds out your way may also have smallmouth bass. Have you caught any SMB yet?

You dont need a lot of LMB to control your crappie population if you do it yourself, I am a little the same way, Id rather have the BC myself then the LMB, not as big a fan of WC tho. But I will keep the population in check myself in a couple acre pond, one of my favorite activities is catching slab Crappie and my second favorite is eating them. I dont wanna have to compete with some nasty tasting bass for my fillets. js

That is a beautiful BOW BTW!

Thanks for the replies... ideally I would have catchable eating size blue gill and crappie....no really concerned about trophy size... At this point there's not even any variety.... At this point we are eating tons of 6 and 7 inch greenfish.... I wouldn't mind it being 6 and 7 inch crappie at this point lol... But I don't understand is why the crappie are not over populating and why there are no bluegill

For a new or empty pond, the usual order is: stock minnows and let them get established, then stock BG and let them get a start, then stock your top predator (usually LMB).

If the pond already had a large GSF population when they tried stocking BG, then there is a chance that the GSF managed to eliminate the BG before they were able to establish a sustaining population.

The GSF may also be keeping your crappie population in check. Without minnows or small BG to provide forage for the GSF, you may have thousands of stunted GSF in the pond. The cannot eat the large crappie, but they can wipe out the crappie fry and crappie fingerlings very efficiently. A few crappie do get through and that is your supply of rare, large crappie. (Speculation on my part.)

My advice would be to keep fishing for BG to determine their presence and size/condition. I have fished with little kids in small ponds where you had to catch about 10 GSF off of a single cedar tree before the kids could catch any BG! Frequently, you could even tell by the bobber movement if it was a GSF or BG sampling the bit of worm. (When my #2 daughter was little, she used to call the BG, "sneaky fish", because they were more difficult to hook than the more aggressive GSF.)

Also try to determine if the GSF you catch while fishing for BG are all about the same size and a little skinny. (That will suggest the GSF are stunted.)

If you do NOT have a good population of BG, then one option would be to stock some larger, feed-trained BG and add a feeder to your pond. On a quality feed, your BG will grow very rapidly. They should then be able to establish a reproducing population. If so, it may take several years, but they should be able to out-breed your GSF and become the dominant panfish in the pond.

If you do get some comprehensive sampling of your fish populations, and are considering the plan I described above, then you should probably start a new thread on that specific topic. There are lots of experts in the forum (not me) that could help you evaluate your proper stocking sizes and numbers of BG to give you a good chance of getting them established in your pond.

P.S. As your pond shifts more to BG and away from GSF, that may also help your crappie population. (Hopefully!)

Is there a problem with catching adult bluegill from another pond and putting them in mine? If so how many?

I don’t see a problem.

When my dad owned my 2.5 acre pond many years ago, it didn't have bluegill but was over populated with stunted large mouth bass and many green sunfish.of all sizes. I bucket stocked adult bluegill into it. Probably about 40 of them, and that's all it needed to kick start the change. Within about three years, the bluegill population overtook the green sunfish and the bass size was much more distributed than a bunch of 10 inch overly hungry fish. It got to the point where the bluegill we were catching far outnumbered the green sunfish.

I don't see any downside to trying. You either get a sustainable BG population started, or you don't and your "cost" was only the wasted effort of fishing for BGs. (I have failed on some projects where the labor was MUCH less enjoyable than that.)

I would have guessed 40 BG would not have been enough, but Sherwood's example proves it is possible.

Does your water level ever drop a few feet in a hot, dry summer? If so, then you might read a few threads about creating BG spawning habitat. If you helped your BG have lots of babies, then I think you would have an even greater chance of success.