Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking How can I turn this pond into its full potential

So i have acces to fish a private pond using electronics through the ice its a deeper pond with most of it being 9 to 12 feet deer with a hump.in the middles that is 5 to 6 andthe bank is sloped then drops off the water has visabilty of 9 feet and bottom consists of gravel sand and a short cabbage type vegetation we have caught lots of good quality sized blue gills but some of them are horribly skinny as well as one 12 inch perch that had good body weight which i caught 2 times based on pictures we noticed the same markings amd then 3 lmb 13 in,7in ,5in with the water being so clear we can see there is lots of small bluegills and but we can also see if that there is no cover or structure for yoy to hide being why we have only seen and 3 bass and 1 perch compared to 2 dozen gills over 7.5 inches so my question is this pond is producing good panfish already but how can i make it better? First idea was to create some structure aka sink some Christmas tress neer the hump so when the yoy hatch they have instant cover next was to order lmb fingerlings and based on the gill numbers id say atleast 30 fish 4 to 7 inches they have plenty of forage so they should grow quick I was also thinking before the bass population grows rapidly about stocking fathead minnows and golden shiners as well as stocking perch that are 5 to 7 inches for removal of fish at this time i dont think it would be appropriate to remove any bass but once the bass seemnto be producing bass over 14 would be culled as we want a quaintly and quality pannfish pond and so far we have only seen and caught that once perch so for now we are removing bluegills with a skinny body weight from 6 to 8 inches and any blue gills over 8 are let go cause of good lenght genetics there anything different different y'all would do.

There is a reason nothing has populated the system, finding what that is and changing it would be key in my mind.
If BG maxed at 4" I would say too many and bass would utilize that forage resource, but if some fish pushing 8" are present I think you have something else going on. Even a few LMB of several length sizes would indicate some sort of reproduction but it appears for some reason survival is not good-Just not productive in general. Adding some habitat may help that.
I still have to say if you have those species present, there is something else restricting growth and recruitment...Need to figure that out before adding anything.
Any fish you catch should be measured and weighed, then plugged in to see what WR values are to establish a visible point where/if there is-a change in body condition.
Not knowing much more about it, I would start there.

I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure ultra-clear water could be an issue (you say you have 9 foot visibility, is that corret?). Generally speaking, fertile water often has a green tint to it. Fertile water is crucial for newly hatched fry, since they feed on those microscopic organisms that turn your water green. Also, clear water makes it hard for predators to sneak up on their prey.

Okay thank you for that information i will start taking weight and length measure ments and record them my guessis the there isnt the weed growth for more types of aquatic insects but theres enough mainly bluegills that spawn that theres enough of a surge of fry that it gets them enough food to not stunt i just think bass amd perch dont have it as easy being the bass probably get chased off there beds and perch fry barely make it but if they do they feed on bluegills amd get decent thats why i think reduucting in small bluegills adding cover stocking bait fish and and more predators and selective harvest of bluegills untill we see more small bass and more perch then go from there to estimate the size and amount of each species to be removed each season

How big is the pond?

If the cabbage type vegetation is green this time of the year I'm willing to bet it is Curly Leaf Pondweed. 9' visibility isn't unusual in lakes up there, lower nutrients and months of ice on prevent any turbidity issues. Low light levels getting to the water minimizes phytoplankton growth in the winter.

Large Bluegill, small bass sounds like a bass stunted pond, but until you get a good handle on what size bass are in there you won't know for sure. That is hard to do through the ice. Have you fished the pond during open water season?

Tayten, welcome to the forum! To make your posts a bit easier to read, take a breath, use punctuation. As an example, what is easier to read, what I typed out above or what I typed out below?

How big is the pond? if the cabbage type vegetation is green this time of the year I'm willing to bet it is Curly Leaf Pondweed 9' visibility isn't unusual in lakes up there lower nutrients and months of ice on prevent any turbidity issues low light levels getting to the water minimizes phytoplankton growth in the winter large bluegill, small bass sounds like a bass stunted pond but until you get a good handle on what size bass are in there you won't know for sure that is hard to do through the ice have you fished the pond during open water season?

And I thought I was the only spelling/grammar/punctuation nazi around here