Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Another hooked newby

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.

Welcome to the forum Mikebee! First Questions: What's your ponds depth? How is your pond fed?( run off, well, spring, ect..) From your description so far rotenone would be a good start. Good luck!

I honestly don't know how your plan will work, but it would be interesting to see what happens. If I were to attempt to "manage" my way out of this situation I would add a lot more bass. I would also have realistic expectations that these GSF will probably persist to some degree and directly compete with the BG limiting their potential somewhat.

One small addition to your plan could be to try and add a few more larger LMB, like 16"+ in length, while removing a lot of green sunfish by fishing, seining, or trapping.

A 13" LMB could eat a 5" green sunfish, maybe (??), but not enough of them to see a dent in the GSF population.

What Sunil said, +1. It may take noticeably more than 4 LMB to cut the GSF population (I'd shoot for maybe 20, plus heavy GSF removal by hand). But it's definitely doable.

I dont think you should have to rotenone a 1/4 acre pond. You can manage your way out of it and have fun doing it. JMHO.

Welcome to the PB forum and a good first post. With that size pond you can manage it as you noted using Sunil and Theo's suggestions. With only 4 LMB do you know if there were both male and female in the 4? Same question for the BG. If you use the "more LMB" method using 10-12 in. fish you will need to take some out in about a year. It would be good to add some LMB of all sizes in the add-on group so you will have different year classes. They will also feed on the various sizes of GSF more efficiently than just a bunch of 12in. LMB. Your June 3 LMB had probably spawned by then given your location. Don't count on their this years offspring. If you could get about 20 4-6in LMB and a couple of 16in. ones to add this fall it would be good. I would, over the rest of this year add about 20 more adult BG some of each sex. Here is a link (see pgs 10-12) about pond balance and what you should see and look for. Seining ,trapping and fishing of the pond will give you info on what is happening and a way to help the process of GSF removal. Let us know how it goes.

http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p1428.pdf

Thanks for the input. I will work on adding some more bass and bluegill. I am pretty sure the largest bass was a female. She was either full from a recent feeding or was full of eggs (full firm belly). That is why I asked if maybe she might still spawn. It was just a longshot thought, I wasn't really expecting it. As for the bluegills there were definately a mix of sexes, I did not note the exact ratio but, I would say that it was fairly close to an even balance. The pond is feed by runoff from about 15 acres and has a small spring coming out of the ground about 25-30' from the edge of the pond flowing into it. The pond is about 10-12' deep in the deepest place. I have horses watering from the pond so the water is fairly fertile, visibility is about 24". I have been steadily taking out the GSF most of which are only about 2"-3" in length. I wondered if it would be good to fish/trap them out in addition to predation by the bass and catfish, or to leave them for forage. I guess the few that I can remove will not make much of an impact before the bluegill spawn comes into play. It's funny, after reading all of your replies for these several months I feel I know all of you, but it is weird having you talk about my pond. Thanks again. I will keep you posted.

Keep in mind, mikebee, that in a pond that size you can later remove some LMB if you think you've put in too many. I concur with others that several more largemouth are necessary to begin your pond's rehabilitation.


Also I wouldn't be surprised if a high density GS population will supress your LMB reproduction, so don't automatically assume a good LMB year class next year.

I love ponds this size and am very optimistic that you can create a much better fishery than you currently have.

Usually LMB are easy enough to acquire that you should be able to get those GS hammered back.