Have been feeding combination of Purina Game Fish Chow (recommended by hatchery I bought my fish from) and the last 3 months Aqua Max 500 ( read about in pond boss) twice a day when water temperature was above 40 and once a day when colder.
It seems the BG have already spawned at least once (maybe twice). The place I purchased my fish said it was too small without aeration to stock bass.
I am now concerned (after some advise and reading threads on Pond Boss) that I will quickly have too many BG and have a stunted growth rate. I have attached pictures of a few of the BG we are currently catching. I did check on the channel cats early March and the ones I caught were around 1 - 1.5 pounds.
Will the channel cat help keep the BG population in check?
Will the channel cat help keep the BG population in check? I would say only to a limited extent. Your CC are getting about big enough to do some predation on the BG, but they are not as aggressive as LMB and will not, I believe be able to control the BG population enough to prevent the current and future spawns from being mostly stunted.
You will get some nice BG among the ones that feed the best (especially from the original stockers, which are limited in number), but most would be small and stunted.
Should I get some Bass? How many? What, if any, are my other options? Of course the conventional answer is "Yes, stock LMB." As to how many, if you didn't stock them originally, I suspect your primary goal isn't "Large Bass" - if so, I would put in 100 advanced juveniles (say. 6"-7", so that they don't get et) if I could get them, otherwise I'd stick in 200 fingerlings and repeat (next year) as needed. A Bass-crowded, big BG pond is a wonderful thing (if it's your thing)!
Thinking a little more unconventionally, HSB are fun and grow very well on feed, but the CW (is it correct to use conventional wisdom when thinking unconventionally???) sez they won't control BG like LMB do. Then one gets to various other predator concepts like Tiger Muskies and assorted small Pike/Pickerel, which I have zero experience with. But you can search for those topics here and read past threads on them, and others will chime in (with more ideas).
