Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations I've got two small ponds and a plan...

Eat the bass that you are culling from the FP pond.

If they don't eat fish, then there might be an issue harvesting enough and the correct amount of fish from the ponds. The other option is see if any of the neighbors would like the fish to eat, or feed the 'coons.

Stocking 3" bass next July is an option, but you cannot sex them at that size. SO, you will have the issue of having to harvest bass from BOTH ponds every year, and in the process you will educate the bass in the TP pond NOT to bite a lure.......... While you might have big bass in there after 3-4 years, catching them might be a different story. You want to end up with no more than 15 bass in the TP pond to grow to trophy size.

If you are absolutely sure that they are BG and not GSF, then catch small BG from the FP and throw them in the TP. If you have ANY doubts on what type of fish it is, feed it to the coons. You don't want GSF in there (for now).

Research carrying capacity. The gist is a certain size body of water can only hold "X" pounds of fish at one time if it is not aerated and the fish are not supplementally fed. Add aeration and it can hold more fish. Add fish food and it can hold even more fish.

A single bass needs to eat 10# of fish to gain one pound of weight, and it needs another couple of pounds of fish per year just to survive and not grow. The bigger the bass gets, the more fish it needs to eat to survive, and STILL needs 10# of fish to gain a pound.

For forage in the TP, hopefully the large BG that you stocked will pull off a spawn this year yet. No need to add forage fish yet, just see how things are sitting next Spring.