Two years ago I stocked my now 8 acre tank with 1000 bluegill and 10 pounds of fatheads, 200 of the bluegill were 6”+, they are now giant. I have fed them the whole time. I may have 100K bluegill in this tank now. I just put in 300 2” black bass. Will enough make it to stock the tank or should I buy some 8-10” bass to cover my bet? Had a lot of rosy red fatheads before the freeze. I’m not seeing any now. Should I also add gold shiners now? Need some help from the experts.

The Bluegill in there can eat those bass that you stocked.

What is the fishery goal for your pond?

My question is where/why 2" bass this time of year??

Maybe because the bigger sizes are already sold out.

My goal is to have these bass live.

I’m sure some will survive ….

I may be wrong ... but I think Snipe is wondering what I am. Why are the fingerlings still 2" long in October? Doesn't seem right ... they make that growth by June generally especially in Texas

I agree with you, they may be the runts of the litter so to speak, or the hatchery had them poor quality feed in a raceway fed by well water. To keep them from eating each other hatcheries usually grade them at least once every few weeks if not more often.

I talked to a supplier today - see my answer a few posts below this one.

All LMB do not spawn at the same time (especially in hatcheries) where conditions can be controlled. Could be a late hatch or what others said above. You should find out why. I think I would try to find about 10 - 12 6-8 inch LMB to stock now from a different hatchery.

My guess is you will have about 25% survival to year one if the fish were in good condition. On average when stocking 2 inch LMB into a pond with existing adult predators (other LMB) survival is between 2 and 10%. With BG only those %s would go up substantially due to gape size differences and your feeding the BG.

See habituation threads. Habituation of those 2 in LMB would have made a huge difference - survival maybe up to 85 %.

So what do you guys think the size range should be for this years spawn?

Bobbss, in my neighborhood pond, the YOY LMB are about 3-4", and they look plump. I even saw one take a small feed pellet.

Now, being in W. PA., we may have had a later spawn than Texas.

Bobbss,

It wasn't clear if the question was directed to a pond with fish or a hatchery. But Sunil's observation is common. The difference between a 4" fish and a 2" fish is substantial ... the 4" fish is more than 8 times as heavy. In a hatchery, 2" fish could be maintained in a crowded condition with little growth by feeding only maintenance rations of feed (~0.75% of body weight daily). No one likes to see fish maintained this way for such a length of time (4 months) especially predator fish that are hoped to be trophies some day ... ergo ... the troubling thoughts. Eric brings up a valid point about the possibility of a latter crop ... so maybe that explains it.

Thanks guys, I was interested in knowing sizes in both but I guess I was more wondering about a pond with fish so I would know how mine are doing. I've seen at least one that looks 7"-8" , a couple 5"-6", a few 4"-5", a few 3"-4" and maybe a couple that might of been just under 3".

Here is the concept the guys are explaining in a pic - these are all 1 yr old LMB - size is highly dependent especially on food sources and availability (growth rate). Same would apply to yoy. Other things also effect growth like , genetics and location (water temps).

In heavy June rains I had some YOY LMB wash into my new 8 acre pond. They have all of the golden shiners, fatheads, and bluegills they could possibly eat on this summer. I'm pulling them out and they are running 8 to 12" and fat fat fat; plan to stock my first LMB mid OCT they will be F1s... I've caught 20 of these YOY LMB to date. Moved them back to the upper ponds they washed in from

I talked to a hatchery today and they have 3" LMB. Asked why and they said this is the 2nd spawn for them, they sold out of all the first spawn fish (larger ones). Any left over will be kept in the raceway and fed over the winter for sale in the Spring.

All I ever see advertised around here is 2"-4", spring or fall. That is what I stocked spring of 2020. I think pretty much all of them were at least near 3", and most of them were over 3". I think they had good growth after stocking.

I talked with the fish farm in Breckinridge today. He also had 2-3” bass and some 4-5” bass. I was going to buy some of his bigger bass and told him what I had done in my tank.he told me not to worry about the bass I stocked. He said from his observations the bluegill wouldn’t be able to catch many of the 2” bass. I was surprised and believed him because he gave up a good sale to the ignorant.

Scales, I wouldn't beat yourself up too much about it. If you've been feeding the bluegill, that takes a large amount of pressure off your new YOY LMB.

If you have cover in the pond for smaller fish, even better.


Now, with 300 baby LMB over 8 acres of water, it may take a while to see and grasp how many have survived.

There’s plenty of cover. This tank looks like Fork when it filled up. It’s been dry for 20 years since the land was put into CRP. It came out this year and is being grazed off right now. It will be back into farming next year and we should have a 16 acre tank if the rain is right.it’s amazing how fast a tank can fill with runoff and red dirt terraces washing out. Looking forward to 5 years from now!

Scalebuster,

If you get 40 to 60 percent survival ... that would probably be perfect for producing huge bass. Be patient ... the pond is FULL of fish that are too big for the LMB fingerlings to eat. The same fish will compete with the LMB for the prey sizes the LMB fingerlings need. To complicate matters ... the pond is near capacity ... so you can't stop feeding. Feeding will expand the capacity allowing good production of the sizes of prey the LMB fingerlings need. Once the LMB get to a size that they can eat the 3" BG that they are presently competing with ... they could grow at 2 lbs/year for a few years. At this stocking rate of LMB (and 50% survival) you can take all the BG you might care to in an 8 acre pond. Any harvest that a normal person/family might perform for personal consumption is a minor proportion of the production.

This thread points out one of the interesting and frustrating points of stocking (LMB or BG or Other) into a pond with existing predator fish (BG can be a predator on small LMB). The issues is guessing at the survival rate. It is highly variable. Problem arises if you are stocking anticipated top end predators and miss badly on the survival rate (anticipate 20%) and you get high survival (say 75%). My guess was 25-30 % survival in this situation. If my guess is way off and you get 70% survival that would normally be a big issue. Except in your case you stocked very low to start , which is a good idea IMO. Plus it sounds like you may have more water (size) to come for the fish to grow into. Feeding and the size of the BG could easily result in 75% survival of the LMB. This will still be low for your situation but very good IMO. It is much easier to stock low on LMB and add later as opposed to stocking high and having to remove lots of small LMB. I would bet that all turns out well. The way to check is watch the size of LMB patrolling the shallows and next spring look closely for LMB spawning and yoy survival. Keep us posted on what you see.

Keep an eye on their growth rate. You should see them adding at the very minimum a pound of weight (might be 2 or 3 pounds) per year the first year. If your goal is to grow large bass, then start harvesting the YOY bass once they pull off a spawn (which could be next Spring if they grow quick - 12"-14" bass will spawn).

If your goal is to manage for large panfish, then any LMB you see over 14" take out.