Originally Posted by ewest
The 10/1 ratio is advice from old southern research on producing food from ponds in the 30s and 40s via the cooperative extension services/USDA. In many northern states the advice is not encouraged as BG tend to stunt faster.

For example here is a quote from Penn.

"When stocking these fish together, bass should be one year older than the bluegill. A stocking rate of 100 bass and 200 to 500 bluegill has been successful in Pennsylvania. "

That all depends on what the pond owner is harvesting. I haven't seen a BG stunted pond that had LMB in it, and I've seen a LOT of ponds. I have seen a considerable number of both LMB and SMB ponds where the bass are stunted. Even the ponds where the LMB aren't stunted, an electroshock survey has shown that if corrective stocking numbers of BG aren't stocked, the LMB will start to stunt. I only know of one pond where the owner religiously takes out fish every year that doesn't have at least one year class of BG missing or 90% missing.

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3/4 to 1 1/4 ac pond LMB, SMB, PS, BG, RES, CC, YP, Bardello BG, (RBT & Blue Tilapia - seasonal).