Let me give you the facts:
Pond is approx 3/4 acre in Tylertowm, MS
Added plenty of structure (rock piles, synthetic trees (made with 4x4s and 1 inch tubing), pallets, limestone and gravel patches, sunk 5 Christmas trees last year and added another 12 trees this year)
I fertilize pond with Perfect Pond Plus last year (just started this year 3 weeks ago)
Feed bluegill with feeder min of 10 seconds a day, upped as the water temps increase (doing 24 seconds a day now done over 3 feeding times, 6 seconds each at 7:00AM, 12:00PM and 7:00PM)
I was using Optimax Bluegill up until 2 months ago and switched to Nutrena (36% protein, 4% fat) from Tractor Supply
I am in the process of switching back to Endurance, but waiting on my order to be shipped. Hopefully I will have by this weekend.
Added 2000 bluegill and 3000 FHM in Feb 24
Added about 75 adult bluegill from a neighborhood pond (5-6 inches ea) in March 24
Added 75 F1 Tiger bass from American Sportfish in July 2024, I only wanted to stock 50, but ordered 75 because I thought some would die in shipped. All 75 survived.
Added 1500 Golden shiners in March 2025
Seemed like some fish spawned as I was seeing a lot of baitfish in the shallows in early March this year and late summer last year.
Goal is to produce bass 6-7 pounds, possibly an 8 pounder would be my dream
In early spring of this year the bass I was catching were almost all over Relative Weight, even some at 120-130% and all were really fat.
Now the past few weeks the ones I have been catching have been pretty skinny. In fact one I had caught and tagged several months ago lost weight and grew maybe a half of inch in 4 months.
They have all been like that lately, very skinny compared to what they looked like at the beginning of spring
I harvested 6 bass at the beginning of April to start to take a few out. 5 of the 6 I cleaned had eggs in them.
Bluegill seem to be feeding at feeder like normal and seems like I see good numbers of them 4-6 inches.
I used to get a lot of bites on small crankbaits or small jerkbaits from bluegill and catch a fair amount, but don't seem to catch many anymore.
It seems to me like all the bass have eaten most baitfish that is under 3 inches. I still see a few small baitfish in the shallows, but nothing like I was seeing.
I plan to take out another 10-15 bass that seem to be the smallest RW over the next few weeks. And was thinking of adding some more Golden Shiners as a supplement (2000).
Do you think I should add some more adult bluegill as well? I know small ones will just be a meal for these hungry bass.
Any ideas to add to my plan? Or should I do things different?
Ideas and advice are always very welcome and very much appreciated from me.
