Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose GSF Overpopulation

Hello all. So here is my situation. I bought my 50 acre farm back in 2011 which contained a 1/3 acre pond, max depth 8'. The land is very rugged, with elevations varying from 850' in the stream and pond bottom to 1350' on my ridgetops. The pond receives water from two above ground sources that supply roughly 20 GPM throughout the year except for August and Sept, when flows diminish to a few gallons/min. There are also numerous underground springs, the volume of which I am uncertain, that run into the pond year round. When I purchased the property, I asked the previous owners about the current fish population...I got...well, there's some feesh in there, I seen em! Haha. Through minnow traps and fishing I determined that there were nothing but sunfish in this pond, ordered highest#'s to lowest #'s; including GSF, BG, PS, RES, varying cross-breeds of previously mentioned species. 90% of fish caught were under 5". Got a few old timers at 8-10", but very few.
I stocked 75 brown and rainbow trout in the Fall of 2013 at 8-9" and have been feeding since. I always wanted trout and they've done well, with about 50-75% of the originally stocked fish still present as of Fall 2015. They now range from 14-24" in size. While I am sure the browns eat some of the small sunfish, I need to introduce a predatory species to keep the sunfish pops in check. Max summer temps reach about 70 F for a few hours during 90+F days when the lows are above 70 F. On average in July and Aug, the pond is around 66-68 F mid day hours at the surface, with the bottom being 5 degrees colder at all times. I have two diffused aerators as well.
I was thinking smallmouth bass, but was also considering spotted bass...both are plentiful in stream and rivers in this region. Also thought about a few WE...there is a supplier nearby...also considered chain pickerel. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

I am not a pro, but I agree trout alone will not "get her done" when it comes to SF. SMB and WE are also small mouth gap but might help. I would be removing every SF you can catch, regardless of size. LMB is the obvious answer, depending on how you feel about having them as your top predator. Hopefully, one of the pros will be along to offer suggestions.

I trap and remove at least 200/week in the 1-3" range...but they are so prevalent...was going for species listed due to water temps...I have little experience with ww fish in cold-coolwater environments.

Before you throw a bass species in there that you will have to manage, I'd try throwing in some HSB. They won't reproduce. If you can get some WE, I'd put them in there too.

If the HSB can't keep up with the sunfish, add more, and if that still doesn't work, then add the SMB.

On a side note, getting back to the community is great. Was happy to see a book offered for sale here by Claude Boyd. I studied under Dr. Richard Soderberg for my fisheries studies, whom studied under Dr. Claude E. Boyd, whom wrote many of the books about limnology and lentic aquaculture that were our classroom books. ...brings back some memories of some funny Boyd quotes..."why the hell would you use Bromothymol Blue as an indicator...it goes from yeller to yeller!" Haha.

If you enjoy dealing with small sunfish and learning predatory tendencies of fish populations then try the SMB, WE, spotted bass combination. Don't expect noticeable removal of sunfish by the SMB-WE combo. Spotted bass should be a better predator of sunfish. If you really want to get back to a balanced fish community then rotenone the pond when inflow is the least and start over. Two gallons of rotenone in 1/3 ac at about 4ppm will provide very good removal of tolerant GSF. One gallon on your pond will result in 2ppm which in good conditions will often kill all the GSF.

Thanks for the advice and replies all.

I agree with this on the HSB. I now have some 18 inch HSB that are hitting my 3 to 4 inch BG. They can't quite get much more then that in their mouth but I witnessed this first hand the other day when I had a BG on my small hook hooked by the tail and one of my HSB came right up and smacked it!! In my gin clear water it was so cool to watch. So they will help plus like Bill said you don't have to worry about reproduction... Just add and take as you see fit. I love that part!!

RC