Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose My new 1/4 acre experiment with no male LMB

I have two of my own ponds and my best friend asked me to build a small pond in his horse pasture last summer. I dug it in the shape of a lowercase h. It's basically a canal which gives it more shoreline than the ordinary circular shaped pond. It has a 14 foot channel, i left a hump in it and two spawning flats. The bigger spawning flat slopes from about 2 to 5 feet then drops off to 14. I also left a 1-3 foot deep small flat for the bream to spawn with gravel in it, sank 2 cedar trees for structure, etc. I haven't tested the water quality but he limed it in January and the horses may add fertilization with the runoff. In February we took a cast net to my 12 acre pond and caught a total of 247 coppernose bluegill between 2-5 inches. I wanted to put a few bass but I already have enough to manage with my other ponds and I figured in a couple years it'll get overstocked if no one fishes it. Then in early march I got an idea. I decided if I only put 3 to 5 big fat female LMB, they wouldn't reproduce and with enough good size forage maybe we could try to grow some huge bass possibly over 10 pounds. Off I went to my 12 acre pond and caught several healthy fat bass (louisiana largemouth) between 3 and 5 pounds. I took only the three with the biggest bellies and transplanted them in the 1/4 acre pond. I am hoping they are all females. My 12 acre pond was stocked with 4 inch fingerlings in the spring of 2008 so I'm guessing all my big fat bass over 3 pounds in early march are supposed to be females, right? I spoke to the wildlife and fisheries department in Louisiana about what I did with only females and they had never really thought about that kind of idea. I talked to a lady who owns a hatchery and she told me good luck but she doesn't think I don't have a chance.

Here are my questions,
1. If I have only 3 to 5 female bass in a pond full of abundant forage and good habitat, should these female louisiana largemouth grow and possibly become huge?
2. Does anyone know if the females will get sick or have any health complications if there aren't any males to fertilize their eggs?
3. If I have 1/4 acre pond, in general, how many pounds of bass will the carrying capacity support?
4. Should I put some larger 5-8 inch bluegill or large redear in there to help them grow larger?
5. What are my chances of this working out?

P.S. I attached a photo showing two of the three bass I released in the pond, let me know if you think they look like females.

Hey, beezaboy, great looking fish! I have no idea if they're female or not - typically I think there needs to be a good, clear close up shot of their underside so you can see the vents to help in sexing them.

As for your plan, if you have a limited number of fish with abundant forage, they certainly should grow, but it sounds like one of those classic "it all depends" situations that seem to be just about the only hard and fast rule in pond management!

One thing I think I'd be correct in suggesting is that for big fish to grow bigger, they need big food to eat. Lots of small food is going to make them work harder to get a meal and burn up more energy than the food benefit they'll gain from eating a lot of small fish. So, the idea of adding a nice load of larger sunfish might be a good idea.

There was also an article in the magazine a couple of issues ago regarding use of trout as forage for bass. I know LA will get way too hot for trout in all likelihood so you wouldn't be able to keep them over the summer, but in the article, the pond owner added a big load of trout in late fall and his bass showed really good growth over the course of winter when he started sampling them the next spring. The trout provided a higher weight conversion ratio than other fish and so his LMB got great nutrition out of them and really showed improved growth. That might be something worth considering for the coming winter. For that matter, it could be an interesting project to document and post here as a detailed article.

Just some thoughts. Hang on for other input. And post some pics of the new pond - very cool sounding layout.

Way to think outside the box... Single sex largemouth ponds have been done before. But, it's cool you're trying it on your own.

As to whether the pictured fish are male or female, my guess is from the photos and descriptions, they are in fact female. But without a close inspection, it's impossible to say for sure! Hopefully they all are...

As Todd has already said, big bass need big food to grow even bigger. LMB need BG around 1/4 to 1/3 their size to feed efficiently. So say those bass were in the 18"-20" range, you'd want your BG to be in the 5"-7.5" range. With the few BG you put in your pond, those bass are gonna be eating through them awful fast. In order to keep you bass bed, you may wanna get that cast net cranking and really start catching BG and use hook and line as well.

If I recall correctly, tilapia are illegal to stock in LA. If they aren't, they may be an excellent forage source for your fish as well. As you mentioned, I would try to catch some BG too large for the bass you stocked to eat. This should allow the to survive and reproduce giving you a steady supply of future feed as well.

Thanks a bunch guys. I'm going to look into the rainbow trout and tilapia rules and see what I can come up with. I like the idea of a super size meal. As far as big bluegill, I was thinking I might put 30 pounds of them and possibly set up a Sweeney with Aquamax. I'll get some pictures together and post them real soon.

One thing you'll learn in reading around the forum is that, generally, it takes 10 pounds of forage to add 1 pound of mass to a LMB, so that's one reason it's important to have bigger forage. It's also a reason that the forage situation needs to be right in order to achieve growth on your top species. The trout seem to provide a much higher conversion rate than 10 to 1, so definitely check them out.

Ok Here is my plan. I ran the numbers in a fish calculation formula I found. I put 247 bluegill and the average size was about 3.5" long. The formula says you can calculate sunfish weight using, Length x Length x Length divided by 1200. So a 3.5" bluegill should be about .036 lbs x 247 = 9 pounds of bluegill in the pond. I guess I will need to have around 30 pounds or more of CNBG so my plan is to put 11 pounds of CNBG over 7" long (as brewder fish). And 10 pounds of CNBG between 5-7 inches long. Then they can spawn new ones and hopefully support themselves. I will put an auto feeder to help feed them as well. I don't guess fertilization is a big deal with such a small pond if I have horses and a feeder to feed them twice a day... Let me know if you think I should change these stocking ratios or have any other recommendations...

Once I get this all set up, the rainbow trout or tilapia will be my next venture...

I'm not versed on stocking ratios, so you'll need to hang tight for some other input, but chew on this concept a little. There's certainly nothing wrong with BG as a forage base, but given that LMB can generally only eat BG up to a certain size before their shape makes eating them become prohibitive, and that the BG they can eat aren't terribly big, you may want to consider going to another forage source first and just add it on top of the BG population you already have. Others may disagree with me and I would not be surprised if I am completely off base here, but it seems that you might be ahead by stocking something else that can get big, but keep that fusiform shape that LMB can eat - trout (limited time frame for your locale), yellow perch, and probably some others I'm just blanking on right now. The point is to try to maximize the size of food available to your bass to promote growth. Eating a whole bunch of little BG probably isn't going to do the same thing for them as swallowing a couple of perch or something similar. I think it is universally accepted that BG are a key staple in your forage base for any LMB pond, but I don't know if you consider them as the only source of forage.

yeah, I understand what you're saying Todd. We used to fish at the golf course when I was little and the ponds were overcrowded with small LMB and huge BG. On more than one occasion I found 10-12 inch bass dead with a huge BG in their mouth. So I know there is a size limit considering the shape of bluegill. I was thinking about stocking a few Warmouth bass (goggle-eye) because they're somewhat chunkier and not quite as tall, but I really need to find some bigger, more slender fish that are long... Thanks again

Not many species that fit the bill in a small pond like that. I doubt you can find trout in LA and if you can, they'll cost far more than us more northern member can get them for. YP will not do well if survive at all in LA. I believe tilapia are illegal in LA. You may be able to utilize lake chubsuckers, but even they will probably not last under predation in such a small pond. BG are probably your only good forage source... Hope the ones you stock reproduce and to add to them, continue trapping and transferring others to the pond as supplementation...

will do! Thanks a bunch...

another soft rayed fusiform fish is a golden shiner.