Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Recovering from a fish kill (LMB)

I'm sorry to hear about the fish kill. Introducing new adult LMB in the pond will be hard. 1) Due to the cost of the fish and 2) due to them not "knowing" the pond and not knowing where to hunt for food. Typically new adult LMB in a pond will lose weight. If the forage base is correct, your existing LMB can add 2+ pounds per year.

The biggest thing is to get the aeration running full time, and make sure that there are plenty of forage fish in the pond of the correct size. LMB like to eat fish and grow the fastest when they are eating fish that are 1/3 to 1/4 their body length. SO, the best way to get the LMB to grow is to make sure your bluegill have plenty of food, and that the BG are of the correct size distribution.

You can start a feeding program for the BG wiht a good quality fish food such as Optimal Bluegill food, and in turn that will help the LMB grow faster. Starting next year you should harvest around 40 pounds (20lb/ac) of LMB from the pond of all sizes per year to ensure that your pond doesn't get LMB stunted (overcrowded).

To give you an idea how fast the LMB can grow, we have stocked fingerling LMB (3"-4") in early May and the customer was catching 2# LMB in late September. If there is enough food in the pond they will grow extremely fast.