jpsdad thank you for that post. I know it took a long time to type out and I appreciate it. If it was up to me I'd nuke the pond and start over. But most of my neighbors are older and I don't think they'd go for it.

I think you're right about the population structure of the GSH. The median size that I catch is about 4". Rarely if ever see bait store-sized GSH. Minnow traps only catch small BG.

One of my goals is shift that forage biomass from GSH to BG, just because BG are more fun for kids. If the overgrown forage were bluegill I would be a lot happier with it. There were a lot more larger bluegill the first few years I was here, but I think they were overharvested after I started feeding them (not by me). I could have stopped it (and I have), but at the time I thought it would be fine to remove the older bluegill. Unfortunately the population of catchable ones does not seem to have recovered.

So as far as a plan goes, here's mine:

Remove all bullheads and predatory turtles.

Put in some crappie attractors and remove as many of them as I can.

Remove all smaller bass I can catch. As far as marking larger ones---I just don't think I fish enough to mark a keeper population so I'll continue removing the ones that look skinny or old relative to their size (big head/mouth).

Add some cover for small BG.

Seine/cast net GSH and clip fins and release. Chop up the biggest ones and toss them back into the pond.

Maybe (?) stock some intermediate-sized coppernose BG with better genetics or grow some in a cage to an intermediate size before releasing.

Edit: and shift the keeper "small" bass size up a bit until I stop getting so many in the 13-14" size. And be more aggressive in removing the "skinny" bigger ones.

Last edited by rlb3; 10/17/25 04:40 PM.
grower of champion bullheads