Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - 35 Acre Farm pond I'm trying to correct

I'm interested in primarily a Trophy large mouth population with bluegill.

This is a farm pond with another farm pond that buts right up next to it from upstream.

The bass population is low currently and the ones found during electro fishing were 11-16 inches in length and relatively thin.
A decent population of crappie were captured electro fishing some smaller than 2 inches but 3-4", 11" and some 14" were found.
A low population of bluegill existed 2-4" and some in the 8" range.
Golden Shiners were very common and while a lot are under 2" some were found between 8-11" in size.

I'm focusing on clearing up a vegetation issue in the pond by using a weed killer and stocking grass carp. I've installed two texas feeders and later this summer will be fertilizing the pond once I have the vegation under better control. With all of the work done repairing the pond having this evaluation done among other things stocking this pond at the rate suggested simply isn't feasible as I don't have any gold bricks laying around to scratch some dust off of.

My question is would stocking bluegill 4-6" in size by adding say a 1,000 to the pond at the time I stock the carp be of any benefit or is that a waste and I should save up? Should I look to another species due to the black crappie such as the georgia giant or a shell cracker? I'm slowly trying to build this back up to where it was when I grew up fishing in it and pulling out consistent 6+ pound bass with some large bass in the 9-12 pound range.

Lol that ain’t happening

You'll probably never be able to manage your fish population well in a lake that large with the water / fish coming in from pond above so it may be more of a mitigation / improvement issue.

Would be interested in knowing pond depths and contour. Max depth? How much is shallow?

Would you be able to set up a siphon and drain out a large percentage of the water? That would possibly get a lot of those small fish out of the weeds and provide food for the big fish. After the muck dried out some, you could possibly take out some of the silt / etc. to deepen those areas and minimize weed growth to a smaller percentage of the lake.

I am fortunate enough that I have enough contour / height differences that I was able to install a siphon and pull water from my big pond (17 - 19 acres built in 2003). I used 8" heavy duty PVC (schedule 40 or 80?) and installed it with excavator. Put a small valve with riser at top so could fill pipe or open valve to allow air in and shut off in needed and another big valve near the bottom that we use to turn siphon on or off. I keep the top one closed. Works really, really well to adjust water levels.

That is a large body of water to try to get control of, I don't have much confidence in electrofishing as a means of adjusting populations, at least as Ive watched it being done once by the local conservation dept, their rattling, clanging, generator powered, aluminum boat they were in had all the fish clearing out of any area way before they got to them, they didn't float enough fish to make any educated guess as to the actual population in the lake, actually Ive landed more on a good day fishing in that lake then they did with their equipment, and never floated one crappie when I have caught a bunch in that particular lake, I think its because they stay out in open, deeper water that they never got any. that being said, I would guess you need to remove a ton of crappie out of your BOW to get some sort of balance, I agree if you could drain it down to a smaller area you will be able to catch and remove a lot easier.
As somebody that has just bought fish to stock a 15 acre lake, I know, killing and starting over in a lake that size is extremely expensive, my wife doesn't know how much I have invested in stocking fish in only a 15 acre lake.

Oh and something I'd like to know more about. Gehajake, please share how to keep the bride oblivious to pond expenses!

That's not the easiest thing to do, but I am self a employed excavating contractor, and was able to trade out a bunch of work with my local baitshop owner that was pretty close with the fish supplier that he used regularly for his bait needs, so he was able to get the fish at almost a wholesale price and I was able to trade out clearing a bunch of land and green fields for him. worked out great for both of us,, so yeah,, the boss doesn't realize just how much of my time I spent there.
I am learning myself that a bigger body of water is really neat when its really neat, but when you look at the costs and magnitude of stuff to manage, it can be daunting, just imagine what a 1 acre pond costs and the labor to maintain, the 10 acre pond is multiplying every number by ten pretty much. I can catch enough fish to alter the populations in a 1 acre pond but when you are talking ten times that much area its a bit harder to do.
Good Luck HBound, let us know how it turns out. too many fish is a good problem to have if you got some time! worst case scenario, turn a breeding age pair of otters loose in that lake,, your fish populations will be under control in no time!

Done. I'm hoping to start stocking next week. I"ll have a better idea of what my budget is after next week.