New stock this year after work on dam...lost all fish. The pond is north east, more north than east of St. Louis, MO. Want it to be a decent bluegill and bass pond. Not looking for monster bass because I want decent bluegill for the kids. I've added 250 4-6 inch HBG. I have 10 pounds of FHM on the way...yes I've been studying the acronyms. On the fence about GSH, can get them for $9.10 a pound, but don't want them to rule the pond. Gotta deal with cold winters, would love to stock the super gills of the south, doesn't sound like they can deal with cold. I've read lots of posts here and now confused. Anyone with any suggestions on stocking?

How big is the pond? If you want big BG, don't stock the GSH.

Nevermind, if I would only read the thread title..........

1,000 HBG, 150 LMB. Take out every LMB that gets over 15" long, feed the HBG a good pelleted fish food.

See what sprkplug is growing in his pond with HBG and LMB.

I agree with esshup. GSH are not aporopriate for your stated goals.

Welcome to the site and land of the confused.

Not sure Sprkplug and Mike have the same goals. Will the LMB be pellet fed ? If not then IMO there is not enough forage for LMB yoy 2 years out when the stockers spawn.

subscribed, been wondering the same thing this week for my pond...

But I stocked BG, RES, and RES/BG hybrids last year so my pond will definitely have a lot more reproduction for the bass going on.

What town are you near Mike? I am just outside Bunker Hill.

I was looking at that suggestion of 1000 HBG and 150 LMB too? There wouldn't be any LMB reaching 15"+. Methinks esshup made a typo on numbers.

What size is your pond, Mike? "Tyipical" Bass/Bluegill rates are 1500 BG and 75 LMB per acre in your area for decent sized, and plenty of both BG and LMB. Add about 150 RES for parasite/snail control. Since you already stocked 250 HBG and FHM, I'd personally add 1000 BG per acre and reduce LMB numbers to 50 per acre, if the pond were mine.

I'll be stocking a couple Macoupin County ponds next Tuesday...one might even have a Blue72Camaro...lol

Rex, you did what I did. Read the title of the thread and you will find the pond size. He wanted to manage it for large HBG and not large bass so the kids would have a lot of fish to catch, that's why I gave the stocking rates that I did. I agree, 1,500 HBG per acre would work too, but I don't know if 75 LMB would keep all the YOY under control.

I hope Tony weighs in on it. I would like to hear what he has in his HBG pond as far as stocking numbers per acre.

I just had a client call me today. The pond in this instance is 2.5 acres and he wants to concentrate on larger LMB and not large BG. The pond was partially renovated, and it had a LMB stunting problem before.

He either didn't remember what my recommendations were, or just listened to the fish seller. They stocked 1,000 5"-7" HBG and 250 5"-7" LMB today...................

Both are feed trained, and they DO have a TH feeder with Optimal BG food.

What to do if you inherit a 1 acre pond with GSH already in the pond with big bass and crappie? Not many BG in the pond. 1 acre.

Funny part is it hasn't been blue in over 10 years Rex! Talk with ya Tuesday!

. The pond is just north of Worden, my in-laws actually. Before the fish kill it had lots of OK BG, small LMB, CC and really decent crappie that I stocked years ago before knowing that wasn't such a great idea. Trying to get a good balance. Lots of great info here, glad I found it.

Ok very familiar with the area, I grew up between Dorsey and prairie town and went to grade school in worden.