Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Bass taking over!

Three years ago I started managing a buddies pond just to see what would happen. The tank is about an acre and had an existing population of wicked nasty green sunfish in it. I have to admit, they are fun to catch but not what I wanted in my tank. I put 12 fingerling bass in the pond three years ago and those twelve have turned into a nasty bunch of 1-3 pounders that patrol that tank like a squadron of P-51 Mustangs chasing down Panzers. It has been fun to watch and the green sunfish are running for their lives. I am about to put 350 bluegills averaging 6-7 inches in the tank to stay ahead of the bass population. With supplemental feeding, will this be enough to stay ahead of the bass?

Several thoughts, here.
First, be sure you are buying bluegill, not hybrid bluegill.
For a one acre pond 350 adult bluegill is overkill. You won't go wrong with it, but you probably don't need more than 250 fish, if they are 6-7" long.
At some point, your bass will reproduce enough to increase their numbers to the point where bass will overeat the food chain. Even though you won't likely have many bass big enough to eat your full grown bluegill, you will have more than enough small bass to consume each spawn of forage fish. At some point, next year or the year after, you will want to take a few small bass from the system.