Originally posted by eddie_walker:
Back to the pea gravel post. But now I'm reading that bluegill will spawn with or without the pea gravel. What about the bass?
Eddie, most of the folks I know in East Texas, including myself, would rather not promote more LMB spawning, but less. Depends on your pond objectives, but LMB do not seem to have any difficulty at all in overpopulating small ponds without gravel in this part of the world. As for BG, I don't know if the addition of gravel is cost effective or not. I do know they will spawn prolifically without gravel in our sandy areas of ponds, but would they spawn more and more often with gravel to justify the cost? I don't know.
I will offer, not to the surprise of regular Forum members
, that if you want lots more BG in your LMB pond, stock Tilapia in the spring. The Tilapia take the pressure off BG predation and BG numbers will rise. I've seen it happen two years running in 4 separate ponds.
