Hey all, A friend that visits this site often referred me. I've been reading through alot of the archives to try and find the answers I want, however I still have a couple questions.

I just bought a new farm that has an existing pond a little over 1/4 acre pond in East/Central Kansas. I've went out in the middle in my boat and its about 8 feet deep right now (down a little) and has a nice shallow area as well. I'm trying to evaluate what i have in it so I can adjust and maintain properly.

Things I know.

The previous owner told me there is only LMB, CC, and a couple grass carp.

The CC are pellet trained and I have counted around 20 CC between the sizes of 3 lbers all the way up to 8 lbers (majority of them are the same size (6-8 lbs range).

So far every LMB I have caught is between 10 - 12 inches. It doesn't feel over populated at all, in about 30 minutes of fishing you'll only catch a few of them, when it was clear I only would see 1 or 2 in each structure area, I'm thinking they are stunted from lack of food in the water.

There are no forage fish at all ie blue gill, minows that i can see, however a lot of small frogs, no moss or grass under the water that I can tell (hence the grass carp)

I did catch 1 of the grass carp that was approx 15 lbs.

I enjoy the catfish, but am more of a LMB guy. Do I need to add some blue gill to get the bass bigger? add a Adult bass or 2, add hybrid blue gill? Cull some CC?

Also I'm assuming i need to get the carp out, as the underwater grass is gone all together?

Thanks,

One extra note, I did just go out to the pond to check on something and noticed some LMB fry swimming the banks, about 2 in long. guess the bass will be eating those guys at least.

It's tough to grow bass in anything less than a couple of acres. And, with an existing predator population of those sizes, I can't think of any forage that could make a difference. Everything would be an immediate meal.

If it were me and I wanted lmb I would kill off everything and restock with same sex bass and a bunch of bluegill to feed them.

Have you considered some HSB instead of LMB? They readily take to pellets and will grow to 4-6 pounds with quality feed. I'd leave the GC in there and possibly add some HBG for added fishing enjoyment. Smaller ponds are not suitable for growing quality LMB in. I'd also remove at least half of the CC.

What is a HSB? Hybrid striper? I was wanting to get some Hybrid Blue gill put in instead of blue gill so I don't have an over population problem. A local hatchery has 4-6 inch hybrid I can get for fairly cheep. I'm big into fly fishing so the thought of nice HBG would be a fun day of fishing.

If I were to get the CC out would I want to take out the bigger ones or the smaller ones?

Thanks

With the LMB in there you won't have an overpopulation of BG. The LMB will be eating a LOT of them.

Whatever fish you stock, be it BG or HBG, they'll have to be at least 5" long to avoid getting eaten by the LMB that are already in the pond.

Like others have said, if you don't like CC, catch them out. Doing that will leave room for other fish.

HSB does mean hybrid striped bass. If you are a fly fisherman, you would love HSB. HSB are incredible fighters! Since they will not reproduce in a pond like yours, their numbers are easy to manage by stocking and fishing. Just 10-20 per year would be a great addition...

I would remove any CC you can catch... If you like having a few around, you can always restock a FEW each year. They are cheap and easy to find even the bigger 10"+ size you'd want to be stocking. The bigger CC in your pond are really taking up a large amount of the available biomass.

You may want to consider aeration to improve the water quality of your pond and prevent a fish kill. It would be worth your investment....

Thanks for all the input, I'll call the hatchery later today and see if they carry the HSB that would be a fun addition.

On the GC, keep them or take them out? I caught the 15 lber on my 5# 9ft fly rod, talk about a ride. I put him back in, but I've read a lot of conflicting info on if they are good or bad for your pond. So far I've only seen/caught the 1 bass. The CC are very easy to catch, we caught 15 last week on liver with a bunch of highschool kids I mentor. Sounds like a big catch and fry is in our future

In my pond, and in a neighbors pond, once caught the CC are durn near impossible to catch again.

If you can feed the fish, HSB will grow quickly.

Thanks, the CC were not fished for possibly ever in this pond, at least not for 3 or 4 years. I have caught a ton on my fly rod during feeding, I hand tie a deer hair pellet fly, works like a charm. They have wised up a bit, but i just don't fish for them for a couple days and then its on again.

One last question, if I were to put HSB would I want to leave out the possibility of BG or HBG all together? Also I don't see where hatcherys call them HSB, but I do see where some have Wipers? is there a difference?

Thanks again.

Yeah, that's them. You can put in the HSB's without much problem. However, no sunfish gets big enough to escape truly big catfish.

There are many local names for HSB. Some of the variance depends on which species the father/mother is... You can certainly stock HBG with your HSB. As I said though, I'd remove a substantial number of those CC.

Sounds good folks, I think i have a good plan then. Farm out most of the CC over the next month or so, then introduce the HSB adn HBG sometime in Oct. if it works out with the hatchery.

Thanks again for all your help, Next spring I'll be working on power down to the pond for an aerator.