Originally Posted by J. E. Craig
. The summer of '25 will be a recovery year for the BG, if all goes as planned. The 3-acre pond for those 20 years had little to no structure/vegetation for the YOY to hide.

Not if you don't add cover for the fish. You need to have roughly 3/4 acre of cover in there from shallow to deep water. No cover = marathon runners for LMB and no place for the BG to hide to avoid predation to grow bigger.


Look, LMB need the correct AMOUNT of food to eat, in the correct SIZE to continue growing. The only way to do that is to have cover in there for the fish to utilize to hide and to grow. Angling can only show you so much, fish that won't bite don't get sampled. A 14" LMB needs BG 3"-4" long. A 20" LMB needs BG that are 5.5"-7" in length to continue to grow. Without the correct cover in the pond that flat out ain't going to happen.

I'd get an electroshock boat in there to do a sample and go off those numbers. You need to see the fish that you aren't catching.

YES, you need new genetics in there, but without the correct cover there is a great possibility that the fingerlings that you stock will be eaten.

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3/4 to 1 1/4 ac pond LMB, SMB, PS, BG, RES, CC, YP, Bardello BG, (RBT & Blue Tilapia - seasonal).