Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Do I add gizzard Shad to 20 acre bass pond?

We started a largemouth bass pond nearly from scratch around 5 years ago. The population has done extremely well and we are very active management with the pond constantly harvesting 20 to 25 pounds of bass per acre annually. We see an abundance of 3 to 5 pound bass which is pretty big for Kansas but are not seeing anything bigger than that. I have heard mixed results about adding gizzard shad but our end goal is to have as big of bass as possible. Do we stock Shad this spring? The pond will very likely be expanded from 20 to 40-50 acres in the future as well if that changes any opinions and unfortunately crappie also got into the pond somehow but they are very few in number.

I believe a gizzard shad population in Kansas can fairly easily grow past the ability of "Kansas sized" northern LMB to consume the largest members. You then have the possibility of gizzard shad being a significant percentage of the total fish carrying capacity of your pond.

I have seen one poorly managed lake that was BG/LMB/CC and gizzard shad that suffered a massive fish kill. The huge proportion of dead fish were gizzard shad that ranged in size between 8-15". You had to scan the floaters pretty diligently to pick out the LMB.

[One of the good books in the Pond Boss library also warns against gizzard shad unless you have gigantic LMB, in my recollection.]

In a Kansas lake of that size, I would feed my BG commercial food (to grow the LMB), and try to get a good population of Golden Shiners going which also can get large enough to feed 6lb+ LMB.

I would also deliberately fish for flatheads. In a lake of that size, you could possibly have a couple of 40# flatheads that can and will eat 5lb+ LMB!

[I am definitely NOT an expert. Just saying what I have seen fishing bodies of waters in Kansas since I was big enough to hold a tiny Zebco rod and reel.]

I've had Blues alive but VERY sluggish in 48°F water. I've had other tilapia that were sold as blues die at 58¯F water temp. I no longer use that supplier.

Coffey County Lake now has a population of threading shad.

I think threadfin shad would be a great additional forage species for the size of trophy LMB in this lake.

However, KC Kansas is probably going to be too cold to sustain a population. With the available deepwater refuge, they might survive a mild winter. I suspect it would be very difficult to keep them for several years.

Literature suggests their lower temperature range is 42F.