Hi all,
Just some personal experience with introducing pumpkinseed sun fish into my northern waters of NY.
I put in 12 small (about 4”) last fall into an established 1/2 acre pond, which has a good population of yellow perch and black crappie. The black crappie have been doing poorly lately with little recruitment in the past 5 years. Plus they are credit cards with eyeballs. Really skinny! Just not much forage that suits them.
Now there are 12 fairly stout and healthy PS, and zillions of happy little ones! They are flourishing in my pond. The goal is to slowly introduce bass, and if possible, single sex them since we don’t fish often. Secondary goal was to not introduce fish that nip when swimming yet still have bass forage. While not as bad as bluegill, these little shits are fearless. Even the little ones will come right up to you to see of those hairs are worms or not. So a little fail there. But they are fun to swim with! They love to hang around and see what you stir up and join in the feeding frenzy.
Now I am debating on bass this fall, or wait until spring. What is don’t know is what size is safe in my established pond. The yellow perch are 13”, so besides a couple of koi, the biggest mouths in the pond. I may also wait until next fall for this year’s babies to fill out more.
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