An old 8 acre pond in Southern Illinois. I used to have an incredible bass fishery. A few years ago I was plagued with drought, nutrient load, and several turn overs. Since I have added 6 bottom diffusers, game changer on my water quality and fish activity *what's left. Introduced lots of pickerelweed, iris, and arrowhead. Added 15-20% of my shoreline in cover, maybe 2-3% structure in deep water. Added 6 bluegill beds and 50 more kiddie pools in my barn I'm adding this spring. The place is starting to look amazing but my numbers are still way down. I fished it a lot last year. Averaging 8-12 bluegill every time I went out. 3 dink bass all year. You don't even see a lot when you're out there. My goal is a trophy bass pond with high bluegill numbers for the kids. My thoughts are stocking 100 5-7" bluegill per acre next month. Maybe adding 20 f1s/acre mid summer. Then adding 20/acre more next year. Anyone have any better management ideas for me? Thanks!
If it was my pond, I'd call Nate or Austin at Herman Brothers Pond Management, (309) 693-3255 have them set up an electroshocking date and find out what your population is like in the pond by non-angling means. You might be amazed at what you see. THEN you can figure out what needs to be done to get it back to it's former glory.
