Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Small Pond New to Management

I have a small pond on my property and I am not sure how best to manage it. I've lived here for two years and have only fished a few times. You get a bite nearly every time you cast a line into it. Lots of bluegill. Caught one other fish that I think was a bass (pictured) which we threw back in. I've only harvested about 6-8 bluegills. They were thin and I would guess in the 5-6" range, not much meat on them and hardly worth the effort to clean/cook.

I would like to have bigger fish in the pond, but would also like to have plenty of fish for easy catching since I have two small children who like to occasionally fish. My guess is it is overpopulated. Should I keep all fish that I catch or only those of a certain size? Since the pond is so small would over-fishing it be a concern? I'm not really sure where to begin, any advice would be appreciated.

Info on the pond:
It was dug out sometime between 2010 and 2013.
The size is .4 acres (according to Google Earth.)
No idea how deep.
I've never fertilized or fed the fish.
Located in Middle Tennessee.

I would guess you have an overpopulation of stunted fish from what you describe. Others with more experience will chime in, but I would recommend pulling out as many bass as you can and working on adding shallow cover for your young BG. Also consider feeding pellets. I have a small pond in TN as well, that I've owned for about a year and I've grown some BG and HBG to 10+ inches in that amount of time on handfeeding pellets.

First, firmly identify the fish you catch (sorry, I can't see your photos - the site is struggling with that right now) and then familiarize yourself with the concept of checking your fish's relative weights. You basically measure length and weight and compare them to a stadard chart like these...

https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/fi...easy-to-measure-index-of-fish-condition/

https://www.fishandboat.com/Fish/PennsylvaniaFishes/Documents/weightlength1.pdf

https://www.fishandboat.com/Fish/PennsylvaniaFishes/Documents/weightlength3.pdf

https://www.fishandboat.com/Fish/PennsylvaniaFishes/Documents/weightlength2.pdf


This will help you determine what size fish in your pond are struggling in the growth area and then you can decide which classes to cull and which to keep. Fregs assumptions and advise are likely good ones, but checking relative weights can really put some science behind your decisions.

Also go fishing, trapping, and netting to get a feel for the number of fish you have and their sizes. Keep some records so that you have some number to share with the forum.

I picked up a cheap digital scale from harbour freight that has worked well since I took the first lemon back (20$ of so).

Welcome to the club!

I did some fishing over the weekend and this is what I caught.

Fish Type --- Length (inches) --- Weight (lbs) --- Relative Weight
LMB --- 13 --- 0.92 --- 83.52%
Bluegill --- 7.5 --- 0.31 --- 102.08%
Bluegill --- 7.5 --- 0.29 --- 95.83%
Bluegill --- 7 --- 0.28 --- 137.50%
Bluegill --- 7 --- 0.23 --- 112.50%
Bluegill --- 8.5 --- 0.43 --- 107.81%
Bluegill --- 8 --- 0.38 --- 95.31%
Bluegill --- 8 --- 0.31 --- 78.13%
Bluegill --- 7 --- 0.23 --- 112.50%
Bluegill --- 7 --- 0.20 --- 100.00%
Bluegill --- 7 --- 0.28 --- 137.50%
Bluegill --- 7 --- 0.23 --- 115.63%

The only bass was small but the bluegills seem appropriately sized right? Only caught the one bass, don't know if that's because there are not many or if it is that I don't know how to catch them.

Your pond is off to a very good start in becoming a great BG fishery. Some of my favotrite reading on BG and HBG ponds begin here ...

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=189988#Post189988

The above thread, if taken seriously, will take you into rabit holes you never thought would exist with respect to understanding "the Bluegill".

I'm very new at interpeting RW's, but will throw our my two cents. Your largest BG seem to be suffering just a bit. Thier RW's are typically less than 100%, while the smaller classes are mostly above 100%. I wonder where all the small BG are (less than 7"). Did you target them with smaller hooks? I know most RW charts don't go down to the little guys, but gettting an idea how many smaller ones you have is also important. This is where trapping can be beneficial. As far as growing the larger BG...a feeding program could help...OR these laerger BG are at the end of their life and are starting to decline. I vote to feed them and see where it takes you. It may not make a big differnce for the older ones, but the younger ones will benefit well and become larger catches for another time.

LMB can be tricky to catch, at least much more so than the BG. Most great BG ponds have an abundance of LMB in the 13" and smaller range. An overpopulated stand of LMB will keep the BG recruitment low leaving the food sources for the larger BG that have outgrown predation. Most of the ponds that I have frequented that have an overpopualted LMB presence yield quanity catches using a small to medium rooster tail or, my favorite, the mepps spinners. I like white or red squirrel colored spinners or a combo of those colors with the silver or brass spinners.

It is too early to make too quick of a decision on how to manage the pond, but you've likely been given a nice BG fishery...I would stongly consider managing it that way. If you have a desire for larger catches you could add some CC (especially with a feeding program). Let's not jump too far ahead, it would be good to do some more fishing and trapping AND get a few others to back me up or set me straight!

Nice job on the RW recordings!

How and what are you using to sample the fish? How big of hook / lure? How long did it take to catch those 12 fish. And are they the only ones you caught so far?

Just using a small hook, don't know precisely what size it was just what I have available. Put a worm on it and tossed it in the pond. We were out there an hour, two at the most. I've caught a handful before over the past couple years but never recorded sizes or anything. Always lots of bluegill biting, caught a small bass one other time.

Try using a small bluegill as bait for your bass. My bass are very difficult to catch and live bluegill or crawfish are the only things they'll hit somewhat consistently.

If you have only lived there 2 years, I suspect the prior owner and or friends removed a lot of the bass before leaving. That is a common occurrence. When fishing for the BG with your current worm bobber method you should catch one bass, any size, for every 20-25 BG, if the pond has a regular predator - prey balance. Catching more than one bass for every 20 BG this suggests the bass are common and pond has a normal BG-LMB balance. Catch 100 BG and see what the BG-LMB ratio is in your pond. If you catch only 1 or 2 bass for every 100 BG, then you should stock some more small bass. If you stock small bass it is best to stock them in July or August when there are lots of new small BG to eat. If you need to add bass (3"-6") stock around 20-35 in 0.4 acre. This is help prevent this years spawn of BG from becoming overabundant.