Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Unwanted bluegill in SMB, yp pond

Good idea jpsdad. I think if Josh can get a few stream SMB, I would try it. Worst case would be they lose weight and develop a low RW. However SMB are predators and stream living SMB normally have the very common everywhere green sunfish habit or maybe some other sunfish specie as prey items present in their stream so IMO stream smallies would eat appropriate sized RES when small RES are abundant . My adult SMB love eating GSF that has the general body shape of RES.
Try moving some adult smallies and measure length of each and then try to monitor their relative growth rate either by visual observation or the occasional angler catches. If you move some larger smallies you should be able to easily tell original stream SMB from fish farm SMB due to noticeable size difference. There is some risk of the adult SMB eating a few of the fish farm small size smallies.

Please keep us in the information loop as the pond progresses year after year. WE like learning more about SMB. One good way to monitor relative numbers is to record how many and the sizes of RES that you are catching in traps and or are finding from seine beach area samples. Buy or build yourself one or two Z traps. They work well. See Z trap videos on YouTube.