Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding feeding bass question??

hi guys, I haven't posted much yet but wanted to pose a question . I have a 3 acre pond , with points and good structure, I stocked with 4000 coppernose,400 redear, and 4000 fatheads about 2 years ago (new pond) then 6 months later with 250 northern largemouth. the bluegill have spawned like crazy, bass are growing well 14-15 inch avg. My question is it ok if i trap some of the young bluegill and handfeed the bass? mostly for fun , i love watching them come up and smash the lil bluegills. i have about 12 bass in one location that will line up like dogs waiting for treats and eat every bluegill I toss. I only do this at one location in pond so not to disrupt the rest of population feeding habits. probably feed 75 bluegill a week. Thoughts??

Are you feeding the BG ? With the #s you stocked the fish should do well for 18 mths to 2 yrs before the LMB start overeating the forage base. You are at a critical stage in pond mgt where harvest becomes critical. Have you harvested any BG or LMB ?

Yes I feed the BG daily , I’ve harvested about 100 6-8 inch bluegill to cook , I’ve caught and measured a few Bass , they all look healthy and fat , have not kept any bass . Just now seeing baby Bass in pond 2-3 inches . My fish stocker told me not to harvest Bass until next summer year 3. To remove the smaller Bass , I’m assuming second generation or initial stock that didn’t thrive . My reading suggests 10lb per acre of bass to remove , is that an agreed upon number ? Mostly wanting to make sure there wasn’t anything wrong with catching small BG and feeding to bass ? It seems like they would have eaten them anyway .. is anyone doing this ?

You can feed BG to the LMB. I would not use the larger BG however. The idea for both is not to harvest the initially stocked fish but instead harvest from the offspring. Need more info to say if you should start harvesting 10 inch LMB but it will not be long until the 2 yr old LMB start eating to many BG.