Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction New to the forum and ponds....

Hey guys
Bought a farm in west central Illinois a few years ago and had a 2 acre pond drained and redone. Ranges in depth from 5’ to 14’
In spring of 19 I had it stocked with:

1800 bg
600 res
300 hbg

Followed that up in the fall w 225 LMB and 100 catfish

I have a Texas hunter feeder that’s been installed from the beginning that it seems as mainly just the bluegill eat the pellets. Been amazed at the growth of the BG. Already catching bigger Bg than I ever have in my life. My goals are to have really nice BG which I seem to already have and as big of LMB as I can grow.

Being new to all of it though I had a few questions:

- at what point should I start to harvest LMB and how many pounds would u recommend annually?

- being that I have nice BG already, and I seem to have a ton of BG in general (catch them about every cast ranging from 3”- bigger than my hand) should I be harvesting some BG too or will the bass keep them in check?

- do the BG taste any different/worse having been pellet fed in your guys experience?

- should I run my feeder thru the winter? I have aeration system so ice shouldn’t be issue

Thanks and much appreciated, have already learned a ton through this forum.

For 2 ac it's feasible to have big bluegill OR big bass. It's very difficult to do both.

My pond is the same size as yours and similar latitude. I pull out 25-40# of LMB per year (preferably all under 14" length), but it is a very mature pond. New pond harvest recommendations will differ. We are managing for big LMB.

Pellet-fed BG taste great in my opinion and are distinguishable from natural-fed only by the heft of their fillets...

Most people shut off their feeders when the fish lose interest in late fall/early winter. They won't take pellets very actively when the water's cold.

Many people shut off their aerator in late fall or at least switch to a shallow water aeration pattern to keep a pocket of ice open without disturbing the warm water refuge on the bottom for the fish.

Thanks for the info, appreciate the reply!

I’ve read and heard a lot about the importance of harvesting a certain amount of fish per year when managing for big LMB but what I guess I’m not sure of is how soon after stocking to start doing that. Sounds like you reference different thoughts on that.
I believe most of my bass were in that 6” range when stocked almost a year ago and suspect they’re in the 9” range now (we haven’t really fished for them hard yet, only caught one by accident this summer and it was around 9).
Based on what I’ve read they might need to be older/bigger before I can determine which to take out or not. Not sure if that will be next fall when they are 2 yrs old or if I should wait until they’ve been in the pond for three years even.

I’ll keep looking and asking around to see. Thanks again.

I'm no expert when talking about northern ponds and come to think about it I'm no expert when it comes to our southern ponds either. But with my limited experience I believe your forage fish numbers are good but I think you added to many lmb and catfish. Down here we add around 50 lmb per acre in a new pond, maybe even 80 per acre of 2" lmb. So, lets say 160 lmb for a two acre pond. I would start thinning them pretty soon if you want some good growth. The catfish will compete with the lmb for the forage. Sounds to me like there are too many mouths feeding on the forage fish.

I am an expert in nothing, but I think youve got a few too many catfish, unless you want tons of them and very muddy waters.

The catfish taking over is going to be your problem more than BG v LMB

Where are the experts at? Am I wrong?

I just stocked 100 CC in my 1-1/4 acre pond and did a ton of research beforehand. Note that I just stocked in late May so what follows is what I gleaned from research - I will find out in a year or two if I did the right thing. What I have read is that catfish fry have a very low to no survival rate in a pond with LMB present. As long as you don't provide specific catfish spawning habitat the LMB will run crowd control on the catfish and you have stocked a lot of LMB - that many LMB will probably ride heard on the CC fry even if they do have spawning habitat.

My plan is to feed CC so that they get eating size in a year and then catch and keep everything that is eating size and then restock based on what I catch. I am counting on lack of specific CC spawning habitat and the LMB to keep things under control so that I can manage the population with a rod and reel. I am not worried about growing big cats and just based on probability alone, I won't catch them all and will get rewarded occasionally with a good sized fish along with the average size. I think the key is to harvest fish. Again, I won't know for a couple more years if the plan works but my research indicates it should.

Experts? I've been doing this for a LONG time and either learn something new or screw something up every day. One consideration is that an awful lot of this stuff is regional re fish types, RAIN, soils, regulations, etc.

You have got to read this thread that Mr. Bill Cody put together for us. It's is a lot of reading, especially if you follow all the links and read those thread too. Here's the thread...

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

The super-super-quick version is to get the LMB to overpopulate and stunt to some degree. Having an excess of LMB increases the chances of controlling the BG populations This keeps the BG's competition for food low. Feed the BG!...not the LMB - that's the BG's job. Take out all the LMB over the 13-14" range. This keeps the LMB small enough not to eat the larger BG. Some folks even target the female BG's to harvest. This leaves the males, who tend to grow larger than the females and it reduces BG reproduction. I guess this depends on the population trends you witness at your pond.

Large sized BG ponds happen naturally some of the time, while other times the LMB get big while decimating the BG. Once the BG population is practically gone, the LMB (although rather large) stop growing due to the lack of forage and the pond ends up with some lengthy LMB, but skinny. Most of the time, in my experience, the pond goes towards too many small LMB and a few really large BG. My experience comes from un-managed ponds, however.


I thought my HSB would taste like fish food, but they did not. In fact, they lacked most of the strong flavor that some complain about. Feed those fish and enjoy!

As far as CC are concerned. They may mess with a TRUE goal of having large BG, but would be a nice addition for someone who wants to harvest them for table fare and is not going all-out with the BG. I have thought about adding some to my pond, but haven't made the decision just yet...maybe next year, maybe not. It depends on how my HBG do...they have had a hard start and seem to be underpopulated. My thoughts are that they should take to pellet feed and not hammer the HBG as much. This would add another type of fish to watch feed and harvest on occasion. My HSB are very hard to get to take a hook.

I agree with QA on the CC having an effect on creating a trophy (or at least large) BG pond. I stocked BG for two years but did not stock this year. I did stock 100 CC this year in the 4" - 10" range. I also started feeding. The BG are very aggressive feeders and I was worried that the CC were all eaten by LMB or weren't getting any food. Lately though I have started catching CC and they are growing and definitely getting pellets. Now, the CC are definitely making their presence known at feeding time while initially the BG were so numerous and aggressive it was impossible to tell if the CC were around. I suspect as the CC continue to grow they will push out all but the biggest BG at feeding time. That's fine for me as I just want table fare and the BG are hitting 8" and I'll start harvesting CC at around 13". If you want big BG and are feeding, the CC are going to be very competitive at feeding time and when they get big will push out the BG.