Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking How many Bluegill to add?

I have a 1 acre pond in Portland, OR with only L. Bass in it up to 18". They are thin though and I want to add Bluegill for extra forage and balance. Is adding 30 4-5" Bluegill enough to start? Pond is over 10 yrs old and 8' deep.

Also, when is the ideal time to add? We are getting weather in 50-70s right now and warming. Water clarity seems just right and has a nice healthy shade of green.

I have a lot of salamanders too. Is this bad? I hear they are hated by bass.

OBMan,

Having tossed out the bait, hopefully some of the fish experts will bite and give you more info but for a 1 acre pond, 30 4-5" bluegill is on the light side especially if you have hungry 18" LMB waiting at the dinner table.

From some of the other posts here, stocking rates of 500(+)/acre are suggested for fingerlings. As for time to stock, I think your water temps are in range. Fish experts please correct any misleading info.

Russ

In addition to the 4"-5" b.gill I would add at least 20-30 6"-8" bgill. The 16"-18" bass over the summer may eat most of the 4"-5" gill. If that occurs you may need to thin out some of the larger bass and restock more 4"-5" bgill until the bgill population becomes established. Also to get the bgill established it may take drastic thinning of all sizes of bass. It really depends on how fast you want the bgill to become established. The fewer bass there are present the quicker a few initially stocked bgill will be able to develop a viable population. Amount of weed cover present will also affect rate of bgill recruitment.

NOTE: B. Lusk and numerous others say 16.5" LMB can eat 5" bgill. It takes a 17"-18" bass to eat a 6" bgill.

Guys, Thanks for the replies.

There is some reed cover so that might help the bgill get started. I'm also going to add some wooden pallets for fry cover.

Did you have any thoughts about removing the abundance of salamanders? Aren't they a predator to new LMB hatch?