Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Need some advice

Hey there been reading and learning alot on here. I need some help. I made a big mistake in my new pond. Here are my stats of the pond. I bought 800 bluegill and redear and fatheads stocked on Feb. 12 this year. Then on June 8 i got 50 bass put in. I live in the delta area of ms and we have farmers irrigating their crops and it's been so dry the water has been going down. Well alot of that water drains right by my pond and looks clean and don't kill the minnows in it and it winds up in the river. So I said I'm gonna pump that water into my pond and raise the level up. We'll I pumped it with a 190 gpm trash pump for 6 an half hours and it rose about 3 inches. 4 days later I lost 425 bluegill and 41 bass and maybe 300 to 400 fatheads. That water had to have a pesticide on it. Also had this nasty mold for up and it stunk really bad. Got it all out.

My question is my dad has a 5 acre pond and was wondering if I should trap bluegill out of it and put them in my pond to replenish what I lost. I will buy the bass though. What are ur opinions. I knew I shouldn't take that chance with the water but did anyway and it cost me.

Can you trap enough Bluegills? Is there anything in your Dads pond that you don't want in your pond (plants, algae, etc.)?

If you want to grow large bass, stock 20-30 bluegills to every bass that you stock. If you want a more balanced pond, drop that number to 10-15 BG per every LMB. If you want to grow large Bluegills and don't care about the bass, stock 200 LMB per 1,000 BG. Those fish numbers are per surface acre.

In the large BG goal, don't let the LMB get larger than 14"-15" and harvest all the female BG that you catch. If the LMB gets larger than that, take them out.

I want more on the good average side for both fish. From my fish kill count I should have around 375 bg and maybe 9 lm. I was feeding everyday and now its alot quieter. Not many bg eating. So I will need to put in 400 bg. I should be able to trap that many in about a month of month an half.

There is nothing in my dad's pond that I know of besides so FA an I already have Lil bit of that.

Does anyone know how long it.will take for the fish to take to feed again after getting poisen in the water. Even the fatheads are not going to the feed yet. I can't trap any BG in my pond either.

Talked to my fish guy the other day and he said I probably pumped in a herbicide and killed the plankton bloom in the pond and that caused a lack of oxygen. That why most of the bigger fish died and some lived. He said if it was a pesticide everything would have died.

On the bright side I will be getting more bass from him in august or Sept. Also put my trap out there and have trapped some baby coppernose bluegill. So not all is lost. The minnows are finally starting to eat feed again.

Wow lesson learned hey! Sorry to hear that man! Good thing it was a herbicide only!

Good Luck getting them BG out of your Dads pond. Before you know it you will be back on track!

RC