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Thread Like Summary
FishinRod, Theo Gallus
Total Likes: 2
Original Post (Thread Starter)
by Droptine
Droptine
Hello I built a roughly 1.75 acre pond in Central Illinois in October of 2024. I put in 15 pounds of fathead minnows last Spring 2025. There was only about half an acre of water in it at the time. Last fall I went ahead and put in 250 red ear sunfish and 750 blue gill that I bought at the soil and water fish sale. There was probably an acre of water at the time. I am now wanting to put in some largemouth bass and a few channel catfish. I have also thought about some yellow perch but wasn’t sure if that was recommended. The pond now has probably a little over an acre and a half of water in it. I'd like to put some more fish in now but I just wasn’t sure what was recommended for what I am hoping to do. Also, should I add more red ear sunfish and bluegill now that there is more water or just stock all the species for an acre of water and let them get up to the carry capacity naturally? Thanks for any suggestions.
Liked Replies
by ML10
ML10
Does the pond hope to cater to the largemouth bass? What is the main focus?
1 member likes this
by esshup
esshup
Originally Posted by ewest
The 10/1 ratio is advice from old southern research on producing food from ponds in the 30s and 40s via the cooperative extension services/USDA. In many northern states the advice is not encouraged as BG tend to stunt faster.

For example here is a quote from Penn.

"When stocking these fish together, bass should be one year older than the bluegill. A stocking rate of 100 bass and 200 to 500 bluegill has been successful in Pennsylvania. "

That all depends on what the pond owner is harvesting. I haven't seen a BG stunted pond that had LMB in it, and I've seen a LOT of ponds. I have seen a considerable number of both LMB and SMB ponds where the bass are stunted. Even the ponds where the LMB aren't stunted, an electroshock survey has shown that if corrective stocking numbers of BG aren't stocked, the LMB will start to stunt. I only know of one pond where the owner religiously takes out fish every year that doesn't have at least one year class of BG missing or 90% missing.
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