I need some opinions and advice on how to stock an existing pond. I have a 4 acre pond that is 35 years old. The pond was stocked with 1100 Catfish around 10 years ago,it also has Large Mouth Bass and White Crappie but I am unsure of the number stocked and time frames.

The problem is all of the LMB I have caught recently are very small 12 inchs and skinny. And I see no forage fish perch, blue gill etc. So I am thinking about adding some blue gills as a food source. How many fish and what sized fish should I add.

Thank you in advance for you advice.

Lance

In a bass heavy pond which it appears yours may be... I suggest stocking 200-250 3-6 inch intermediate coppernose bluegill/acre. With GA math that would be 800-1000. Good luck! Think about feeding the stocked bluegill they will respond well since they are raised on the pellets. This will more quickly put on weight since the bass will predate them fairly quickly.

It does sound like its bass heavy. If it were mine I would check the relative weight of the bass. If you bass are under weight I would start by removing at least 20 pounds of bass per acre. You should begin to notice the bluegill populations rebounding, although it may be very slight. (or) Your bluegill population may rebound on their own without additional stocking. It depends on how long your bass have been stunted.

I agree with stocking the rates and sizes that Greg recommended or larger if you can find them. but I would not put them in until you removed some bass. harvesting bass improves your odds that the bluegill wont get eaten up before they have a chance to spawn.

One thing I would add to what Greg and Shan said is that Bass and Crappie are not a Good combination for a small pond. If your goal is large bass then allways remove as many crappie as possible to keep their numbers as low as possible

With Bass, Crappies, and 10 year old cats you have alot of pressure on your forage fish!

same problem on my lake four years ago - here's what I did and results. Removed all bass under 14 inches up to 25 lbs per acre per year. Added coppernose and hybrids and golden shiners. Put automatic feeders up feeding Purina Game Fish chow. Removed ALL crappie I caught and began removing many of the larger catfish. After three years I began only keeping the bass out that were between 10-14 inches but still pretty aggressive on removal. Results have been rapid growth in my upper end bass with 5-8 lb bass now in my pond (at the start of the project my largest bass was around 2 lbs and all were skinny.) I still have a few crappie and catfish in the pond but not nearly as many. I have hoards of bluegill of all sizes with good reproduction. So, cull, cull, cull and feed, feed, feed. Good luck

What I was thinking of doing was having the pond ElectroShock Survey, before stocking any new fish.

Do you think the money would be better spent buying 1000 or so coppernose bluegill instead. By the way I have a seperate pond that is stocked with only Hybrib BG should I catch a few hundred of those and add to my larger pond with the coppernose?

Thanks!

Set your goals, if large bass is your goal do not put hybrids in your pond, not enough reproduction for forage

Shocking would be great but can not be an either or. Good chance after shocking you will still have more money to spend on stocking.