Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction New old pond owner in SC

Hey people looking for some advice. Moved into a new place about a year ago in South Carolina. I have a pond that’s about 4 acres. So far we have stocked with 400 bluegill, 150 shell crackers, 100 catfish, and 6 grass carp. We have caught eating sized bluegill and crappie, shiners, and very small bass. The pond is fed by a creek and gets 15’ deep at the dam. Plenty of structure and vegetation and we consistently catch small bass but would like to up the size. I have read keep most of the small bass and a good amount of bluegill and that will improve. We also feed the fish from the dock and mostly see shiners eating. Looking for any advice to get some big ol bass swimming around!!

You need more info on population status. Catch data is good but is only a small sample. Seine survey (you can do that) and or electro fish survey would help significantly. You did not indicated that you stocked LMB - how did they get there ? Same for crappie and GShiners. Were there already fish there when you purchased?

On the LMB are you sure there are no larger LMB ?

Yes the pond already had fish in it when we bought the place. I did not stock any bass just the bluegill, shellcracker, catfish, and carp about a year ago. Pretty much everything we catch was already in the pond at this point. Also, when I feed the fish the shiners really attack the food and we have caught some that are too big for the small bass to eat and I’m thinking that might be a problem too.

And there are probably some bigger bass but I haven’t caught any bigger than 2lb or so. Most are smaller than that.