Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Do I have enough bass?

Naïve newbie here in Deep South Alabama. I have an acre and a half pond (4-9ft deep) that I stocked Spring of 2020 with fathead minnows and 1000 cnbg. December 2020 I stocked 100 fingerling largemouth bass. FHM are all gone as expected. I regularly fertilized the pond and fed the bluegill during the summer months. The bluegill population is and has been absolutely exploding since day one. Even today I see tons of 1 inch fingerling BG minnows in the grass is near the bank. I assume that the small fingerling bluegill are very young and hatched recently this winter…..?? We have had no significant harvest of any fish since the pond was built. The oldest BG aren’t even 2 years old yet.

Last year I was concerned that I did not have any bass from the original stocking because I saw Zero bass at all until last summer. Now I can regularly catch two or three bass I am hour. Rarely have time to goof off any longer to catch more but I thought if most of the 100 LMB survived the original stocking I would easily catch quite a bit more. All the bass seen and caught are in the 1.5 lbs range. I am still concerned that most of the bass from the original stocking did not survive. Are they that hard to catch and good at hiding?

I plan to start harvesting bluegill this spring after the bass spawn so I don’t accidentally catch a bass while fishing for the bluegill and harm its ability to have a healthy first spawn. A few bass I have caught and released will occasionally hit small pan fish lures. My concern is that I do not see a large population of bass to control these bluegill. I understand that bass fry survival rate after the spawn is very low, Possibly even lower with the number of bluegill I have. On occasion I’ll see three maybe four bass near the bank eating small bluegill. It’s just nowhere near the amount I thought I would see or caught by now. Yesterday I saw 8 bass schooled in one small area. Do I have enough bass that I have not seen to spawn the spring and and keep my population in check. When should I consider adding more adult LMB? Thanks in advance for your thoughts and expertise.

Don’t remember who said it first. Balance lasts for a day or two. Then it all changes.