Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations The great 1/4 acre--LMB debate

Greetings,

As I sit on the eve of my 1/4 acre pond's construction, a myriad of thoughts pour over my intercranial spillway. Do this, don't do that!!!

While reading through a Pond Boss magazine I came across an article by Bob that stated a well managed pond could support 75-80lbs/acre of bass. After some quick math I realized I would only be able to house 20lbs of bass. Not to mention the concerted effort to cull the numbers so as to avoid a gillion 8" bass. My head began to ache and my wife became worried that we were going to sell one of our kids on ebay for increased acreage.

So I had to remind myself of why I wanted a pond in the first place, which is to create a beautiful, self sustaining(for the most part), wonderland for my family to enjoy. Solution...how about a trophy BG pond? They would be easy for the kids to catch, put up a great fight, and provide a tasty fish fry every now and then.

So then what about crowd control? The BG are no slackers when it comes to propogation. My trophy BG pond becomes a stunted BG pond with a gillion 3" fish. I don't think it's realistic to keep up with them by rod & reel, nor do I want to. So we need a predator. The two solutions that come to mind are a couple of CC that wouldn't breed(hopefuly). A couple of same sex LMB to police the pond. What about YP? They do well in my area.

Would the CC's cause water clarity issues? How easy is it to sex a LMB? I believe the YP would cause their own overcrowding issues. Am I over thinking this? Should I just stay with the original plan of BG/LMB? If so, what kind of numbers/size of LMB would a guy need to remove in order to maintain the delicate predator/prey balence?

Sorry for the long post, I just want to be as prepared as possible. Thanks.

Joe

Have you considered SMB?

Just two days ago I caught five consecutive bluegill from a pond smaller than yours. Combined they weighed 7 pounds.

IT CAN BE DONE.

Do you have access to adult LMB? There are times of the year that it's pretty easy to identify females, namely in the spring.

You can do the following.

1. Heavy harvest pressure on female BG

2. Possibly some trapping of young bluegill

3. Female LMB

4. SMB

5. All male BG

6. Artificial feeding.

Stay tuned for more.

hey joe, great post!! and congratulations.

i am just a little further along than you....in what i call my rookie stage of a hopefully long and fruitful fish mgmt (second) career.

i too have similar thoughts. it appears i'm on my way to some nice sized various species sunfish, but am becoming increasingly concerned on the best predator control for my situation.

so all that said, if threads already exist in the PB universe to help us sex LMB, can someone ease my dial-up pain and post directions. i havent recently seen anything specifically regarding the sexing of LMB but am extremely interested.

the previous sexing of BG posts were awesome. if no older bass threads exist, maybe we could get folks like shorty, you bruce, mr. lusk, and any others to help start one either here or under a new thread.

Bruce,

I am currently researching a YP/SMB pond. I like the idea of cooler water fish and it sounds like the body habitus of YP are easier for the SMB to control their numbers. Funny, I just always assume LMB, must be the Texas up bringin'.


D.I.E.D- Thanks. My dad pointed out that a prespawn female would probably be the easiest to sex. Just an idea.

Joe

if bass overpopulate what would be the typical size they pan out at? 8" or more like 10 or 12"???

How about feed trained bass? I have had as many as 2,500 lbs. of bass per acre in my .62 acre pond with only two diffusers running. I have found they apparently do a good job of eating their own offspring at this density as there is virtually NO recruitment! Granted I have perch in the same pond with bluegill but I've seen these feed trained bass herding smaller fish between feeding times.

Rent them out first; see if you like it.

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Another option: HBG and a small number of (effectively) non-breeding predators (CC, SMB) for a feed/put/take fishery.

I would suggest HSB, but no one farther Northwest than Ed Eitel (Harrison, Nebraska) is allowed to have these.

Rent to own, maybe?

The more I look into a YP/SMB combo, the more I like. I have a ton(s) of big granite boulders on my place and also 24 cubic yards of river rock for structure. (dry creekbed project gone bad)

So let me highjack my own thread and let's build a SMB/YP pond. The size will be a little over a 1/4 acre. Plan on using aeration. Crawdads. Max depth 8', with an average of 4'. Is this deep enough? I was planning on aerating the deepest part of the pond, but would I want to leave a deep/cool area?

What say you pondmeisters?

Joe

Since my post has wandered off topic a little I have started a new thread in the Pond Construction area.

SMB & YP Pond

Joe