Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose A NY Bluegill Pond

Russ,
Consider this. Assuming your goal is larger BG, and your pond is relatively small (less than 1/2ac), I would not remove LMB until they are above 14" or maybe even larger than 15". You do want a fair amount of predation on BG 4" and maybe a few 5" just to keep the BG numbers in check. This would be especially true since very few or your BG are eating pellets. Non-pellet eaters are taxing the food reserves of the small pond and food can become limiting for excessive numbers of 4"-6" BG and their growth could be slowed. One way to combat this problem in a small pond like yours is to cage some of those 4"-6" BG in spring and train them to eat pellets and relese them in early fall. Refer back to my 3 articles on Caged Fish in PBoss Mag - Mar to Aug 2007. This will allow for more large BG biomass in a food limited pond.