I have been reading this forum for several weeks now and like so many others that stumble across it, I am hooked. I have a pond on my property that was built by the previous owner. It is about 1/4 acre in size and is chock full of green sunfish. After basically ignoring the pond for many years, except for dumping about 100 fingerling channel cats in a few years ago, I was recently inspired to try and renovate it and make a good bluegill pond out of it. In my internet search for information on pond renovation I lucked up and found this site.

My initial thought was to rotenone the pond this summer and restock with State supplied fingerlings in the fall and next spring. But after reading this forum I am more inclined to try the less severe method. On June 3 of this year I caught (4) good healthy, 11"-13", stocky, dark, dark green LMB from my friend's pond and released them in my pond. Over the last 2 1/2 weeks I have caught from the river and released into my pond about (30) 5"-8" bluegills. The thought is that the bass and catfish (several 3-4lb. left from earlier stocking) will work on the green sunfish while the adult bluegills will spawn several times this summer to develop a viable bluegill population. My plan is to begin harvest of bluegills next spring, with no harvest of bass (assuming these spawn) for at least 2 years. I would also like to acquire about a dozen RES adults and release these this summer. I guess it is just a waiting game now, but I would like to ask:

Does this really have a chance to work?

Will these few bass have an appreciable impact on the green sunfish?

Will this number of adult bluegill be adequate to create a viable bluegill population considering a hugh green sunfish population?

Is is possible that my bass might have spawned in my pond (early June) (I have not seen any evidence of it)?

How long do you think it will take to attain some degree of balance in this situation?

I am already thinking about another larger pond closer to the house that I can see from the front windows, and another mini-pond out in the backyard so I can see it from the back deck. Man this really is addictive.