I have just completed a 1/4 - 1/3 acre pond on my place in Central Texas. I assumed that I would stock BG, Fathead minows and channel cat. But, I would really like to have bass - not a lot of bass but a few healthy fat ones. I'm I beling realistic to think that I could have a little good bass fishing in a pond this small?

Ron

Ron,

You can have bass in a pond that size, but you have to keep after it. 2-3 brushpiles, consistent light feeding, and harvest of excess small LMB are three things you should do.

It sounds like you are going to stock the fatheads, bluegill and catfish first, as most suggest. That's great. This fall, stock 15-20 6" LMB and let them do their thing for a couple of years. After that, be sure and harvest 20-30 bass <12" every year to keep competition for resources to a minimum.

You won't have trophy bass, but you will have bass.

Oh, one other thing. Make sure your pond holds water. In general if you are located very far west of I-35 in Central Texas, that can be iffy.

When you put in your bass purchase feed trained bass that are readily available in most areas. Then feed them once or twice a day a high protein low carb diet (Order a bag of 45/16 steelhead feed from Nelson and Sons in Utah via UPS and it should last you three months if you do not have too many bass), and watch them grow a lot faster and have higher conditions rates than wild fed bass.

If you feed you can have a higher density in a pond than if you don't. My bass grow a pound a year up here in the north. You should be able to get better growth than that down there.

If I had a small pond like yours this is the option I would pursue. In fact some growers growth out larger bass this way in ponds. The offspring will be eaten by the larger bass and catfish. And you may have to do some thinning of the smaller non feed trained bass (offspring). It will be easy to tell which ones they are as they will be skinny compared to the fed bass.

I'd put in about 50 five to seven inch bass.

Cecil is a pro at this high density stocking and fish raising. Be careful. Stocking 50 feed trained LMBass in your 1/4-1/3 acre may be a little high esp w/ catfish and if you do not aerate and the water level drops due to no rain and evaporation. If you feed as Cecil recommends you may want to begin with 25-30 bass instead of 50. Then if things go well, harvest a few and then add a few more pellet trained in 2-4 yrs. As the pellet trained bass reproduce you may want to remove nonfeeding bass as Cecil mentioned. If you do not feed, stock 15-20 as recommended above.

Bill,

Thanks for the kind words but I have a ways to go until I am a "Pro" if I ever get there.

Bill, I was considering he would have some mortality but you are right it is better to er on the conservative side. He can still have some fun with that conservative number and more than if they depended on wild feed.

I will be putting 300 feed trained 5 to 7 inch largemouth in cages Saturday in my .62 acre pond. Hope I don't overdo it. Sure wish the supplier (Laggis in Michigan) would supply them a little later. I don't like planting fish that have just be handled and the water's too cold to get them feeding right away for recuperation. I had some fungus problems last year when warming water temps was slow to come about.

Thanks to all of you for responding to my question.

I hope to end up with a small pond where myself and my grandkids can spend a few hours on the bank catching a few bass. I love to eat catfish but in my mind, they are not nearly as fun to catch as bass. Also, I have a worry about cat's finning the kids and turning them off of fishing.

In summary, sounds like I need to put in the fathead minnows now and then stock 15 - 25 LMB in the Fall. When should the BG's go in?

Thanks again.

If you are relying on fish to feed the bass the bgill should be stocked when you stock the fathead minnows. Bass soon eliminate the fathead minnows and you want small bgill hatch present to supply food and kkeep th bass growing when the minnows are gone.

If you decide that you want catfish you can always stock a few of them later as needed. However they will have to be 10"-12" long to keep 15"-18" bass from eating them.