Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Bluegill

I am heavy on bass fingerlings and find no bluegill fry in a 20' seine haul. Three, 4 and 5 inch bluegill are present. I am thinking that a large bass spawn occurred this past spring and all my bluegill fry are being gobbled up by the bass fingerlings...Should I stock maybe 30 to 40 brood bluegill pairs? The pond is about 1.2 acres. The bass fingerlings are abundant in the seine haul but appear to be in very poor condition. Any suggestions?

RufusCatfish

Rufus, If you have 3 to 5 inch bluegills, they are big enough to spawn. I believe that fatheads are the answer to bass fry survival. I would assume that you have a new pond since you didn't mention any bluegills larger than 5 inches. How and when did you originally stock?

If you properly perfomred and analyzed your seine haul then the pond is low in bass and already high in bluegill. This is if it is a pond greater than 2 years old. A seine haul with lots of intermeidate size bluegill is what you see if bass numbers are low. Are you bass fat? If so this verifies. Also the reason you see a good number of bass fry is becasue the bass wer healthy and reporducing properly. If you see tons of small 1-3 inch bluegill and few intermediates this means the pond is overrun with small adult bass eating the intermediate bluegill. Kinda the opposite of what folks think, but good management tool if you look at it the right way.

I have sampled and fish the pond with a 50 foot bag seine. Bass are not crowded...There is an abundance of bass fingerlings and numerous 20' seines have yet to show any bluegill fry but mostly 3's and 4's bluegill....there are asn equal amount of bass fingerlings to bluegill in the 20' seine. The fingerlings are poor because they have nothing to eat... ....where are the bluegill fry?

The pond is about 10 yrs old...i have sampled hundreds of ponds when I was with the state ...I never saw a sample like this one...

and few large bass can produce an abundance of fingerlings in an acre pond....Let me elaborate the 20' seine haul....
No bluegill fry...???
10 - 2's 3's and 4's
10 - bass fingerlings....poor shape
bass are rarely caught

50' bag seine
2's 3's 4's about 30
one bass about one pound

I am thinking the fingerlings are gobbling up the bluegill fry as fast as they are spawning...but still not enough to go around...it could be headed bass crowded ..but i think overharvest may have resulted of the intermediate bluegill and adult bass....Townhouse complex...i just took it over...

RufusCatfish

rufus..I'm sure you know this but when bluegill are stunted and you have lots of intermediate bluegill reproduction of them is slowed. this would explain lack of bluegill repro. Otherwise there could be environmnetal factors, sedimentation, weather, etc. that caused the lack of bluegill fry. It is however, NOT BASS HEAVY! if you have inter. bg in the sample this is a good thing if managing for bass.

Well I know it is not bass heavy. My point is there are no fry bluegill and if it were bluegill crowded I would find many more bluegill in the 20 foot haul. I need a better forage base. I began fertilizing about a month ago. I hope this will remedy the problem. Any good fishery manager can stock a pond from scratch and produce an awesome fishery for 5 years but corrective stockings are the real challenge. Any thoughts?

You keep mentioning lots of bluegill. Thirty bluegill in 3 hauls of a 50' is not alot. You must be an Auburn grad? :rolleyes: hehe

RufusCatfish

Nice website Greg. I might be interested in your fertilizer....Any thoughts on bidding ponds and lakes...I was thinking outside of weed control, fish stocking, travel distance etc. ..What would you say is a good price/acre to manage and maintain on a yearly basis?

RufusCatfish

Your right 30 is not alot, but when I shock I may not get 30 out of a 10 acre lake between 3-6 inches if really bass heavy. I don't think you can go wrong with fertilizing with your (pondowners) goals in mind. I provide pricing on a per job basis, because there are so many variaibles to consider. Thanks, Greg

UGA grad, here. Good cut on Auburn, I'm worried about football season.

You guys seem to be fairly more experienced than me, but sometimes a fresh perspective can see something new. As I scanned through these posts, I can't help but think that your problem is lower in the food chain. Fertilizer would certainly help at the lowest levels of the food chain, but maybe you need to look at the structure in this pond as well. Adding more structure with some variety of these additions would provide more places for water bugs and larvae, tadpoles, crawdads, minnows, etc. to grow and give those bass more to eat than just bluegill fry. Also, peagravel beds can be made to increase the bluegill hatch if you are concerned about that. Another idea is getting an automatic fish feeder and some purina fish chow to help those bass right now while you're waiting for your other solutions to kick in.

Good Luck!