Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Welcome to Pond Boss

New guy from south Louisiana, transplant from Washington state. Bought a small chunck of land with a 1/4 acre pond on it(maybe smaller). It is pretty much a green sunfish pond but i recently added fingerling LMB and channel cats as well as a couple pounds of FHM. Im hoping to find the best ways to keep baitfish stocked.

Welcome to Pond Boss!!!

If you've got existing green sunfish, you are likely to lose a lot of the LMB fingerlings to predation, so try to keep an eye on that.

Yeah pretty sure i lost most of the LMB. Ive seen a few, i only put 25 bass in and its been 3 months since i stocked them.
The green sunfish are decent sized but i was hoping that adding preditors would wipd the out. I would prefer BG.

You could throw in some cover, like Christmas trees to help any remaining LMB to survive, and you can stock some larger LMB easily.

Bought my fish from Dunns fishfarm, the driver told me they sell adult LMB., just need to order in advance That might happen.

I have a question, like i said i put 2lbs of fat head minnow. But im pretty sure they are almost gone. Besides adding cover to protect the minnows and fingerling LMB is their anyway to establish a population of FHM?

Kill every other fish in the pond.

Fatheads are slow and tasty. Adult BG love eating them. With GSF and LMB, they won't last long.

Welcome to Pond Boss. I see you are already getting some really good advice. There is lots of that here!!

Best of luck, we look forward to hearing how it works out.

Welcome to PB.

The Green Sunfish only spawn annually and bluegills have a rolling, never ending, spawn. Thus, in theory, but only in theory, the bluegills should wipe them out. Doesn’t seem to happen. I have a 1/4 acre pond with only green sunfish that I didn’t stock. I stocked bass, bluegills, redears and channel cats. Over 40 or so years, the greens, with the able assistance of cormorants, have wiped out everything else. Where did they come from? No idea unless they came mixed with the original bluegills. I occasionally feed them and occasionally fish there. They will out fight a bluegill every time. I like them in this setting. This water hole is a mile from the house and I have another one to spend $$$$$ and sweat on.

The larger one, an acre or so, is close to the house and I spend most of my blood, sweat, tears and money there. I call it my cormorant pond and is a twice a year battle.

If your goal is a balanced bass, bluegill, and catfish pond, nuke it and start over. But, like teenage daughters, it’s a never ending challenge.

Good info there. I think i will fish out as many green sunfish as i can and add more minnows for atleast the next year. Problem with starting over is im not getting any younger and i would like to enjoy some fishing in my pond if that makes sense. Next crawfish season ill add some crawfish and continue hand feeding fish food and see how it goes.
You mentioned you have green sunfish that you didnt stock. Last year while feeding the sunfish i noticed 4-5 catfish about 8-10 " that i didnt stock. The fish farm told me birds probably brought fish eggs from another body of water. Kinda makes since.

I know this may seem like a bad idea to most but you say you are wanting to balance it sooner rather then later because of your age, inotherwords, not really looking to start completely over, you might be able to find a neighbor that is wanting to reduce the LMB in his pond that could hook you up with some adult bass, 1lb or better, they will speed up the process of balancing out your GSF, and wont get eaten by them, might be faster and considerably cheaper then buying full size LMB.
Good Luck, let us know how it goes!

Here's a link to help you with the abbreviations. https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92442#Post92442

I'm somewhat new here myself so hopefully more of the experts will chime in.

How does your pond get water?

Mr. Lusk says the bird theory just doesn't make sense, I have to agree. I also have GSF and YBH catfish that I didn't stock, they washed in from upstream when my pond was built a couple of years ago. My kids caught them in a water hole along the creek that feeds my pond over 20 years ago, so they've been here and always will be. For me, I just try to keep them thinned out as much as possible and stock CC and LMB to help. There are only 2 ponds in my area I know of that don't have YBH and GSF. They have absolutely no other water input other than from a well. One of them is right across the road from the state fish hatchery and only a few miles from the Salt plains lake/Wildlife refuge which always has waterfowl of some kind around and it was built in the 80's. I've fished it several times and never caught a GSF. I would think that if birds brought them in, it would have them as well.

As DD1 said GSF are fun to catch, and BG should overpopulate them eventually.

Is your goal just for bait fish (BG and FHM) and to catch a few fish, like you mentioned above?
Have you identified the catfish, are the CC or BH?
I'm sure the experts here can give you some advice to get you headed in the right direction.

My pond is filled by rainwater. I live in the deep south of La. The bird theory makes sense around here. We have open ditches, crawfish ponds, swamps, canals in all directions and a huge Egret and herring population that being said Mr. Lusk would know better than i would.
Pretty sure the catfish that i didnt stock are CC. The sunfish are a decent size ( ill take pics soon) so i dont mind having them but i thought, like you said BG would spawn more often and they are also fun to catch.
Honestly im not so much trying to build a balanced pond but more of a CC pond with a few other species. My pond isnt large so im sure there is only so much that i can do.
I enjoy chatting with like minded pond owners so thanks for the responses!

Im trying to remember where Abbeville is, I went to school in Morgan City in the early 90s and lived in New Iberia. Am thinking Abbeville was in that area but am not picturing it.

gehajake, try clicking on the Abbeyville under his Name in one of his posts. It should open a new tab in Google Maps zoomed in on that location.

Those 'catfish' you mention may be bullheads, most likely.

A rough fish that takes up biomass. Adult LMB will usually keep them in check.

If you get real aggressive with fishing out the green sunfish, you should be able to remove a hundred plus in a few hours. That will make a difference, along with getting some adult LMB.

Was wondering if that may be the case also. Will see when he posts pictures. Hurricanes are responsible for a lot of fish movement in that neck of the woods.

Abot 25 miles south of lafyette. I see you are from central Mo. I was born in St. Louis but my family is from a small town calle potosi mo. Thought about moving back there when i left Washington, had lots of good memories growing up in the hills there.

I have an office on the east side of Houston, TX where we sell about any kind fish you could want down here. We have some 1.5 pound largemouth bass available year round. We have a couple electrofishing boats as well. Assuming we can get one in your pond, we could cull some of those green sunfish and find out what kind of catfish you have. We have lots of clients in Louisiana so we burn down that stretch of I-10 from Houston to Baton Rogue every week or two it seems. Might be a quick way to get your pond headed in the direction you would like. Depending on the pond design we may even be able to seine it to pull green sunfish out.

As you are learning it is not a good idea to stock fingerling bass when GSF are very abundant. GSF out compete the fingerling size LMbass for food. The stocker LMbass need to be at least 7"-8" long for good results of small bass survival and quickly get bass growth to out compete the GSF. Maybe get Basquatch to bring you 8 to 12 larger LMB 8"-10" long for your 0.2 ac pond.

Hoybiggun, if you'll rig up a tank with aeration, you're welcome to get LMB from my pond.
My address is 1001 Racoon Run, Franklin. Cell 985-312-6831. Look up Hunting Road in St. Mary Parish. At the south end of Hunting Road, the gate to your left will get you to my place. Just give me about ten days to recover from this flu or cold that I have.

Hey Dudley, it’s been awhile.

It's unusual for me to not visit here daily, Dave, I just don't have much to say.

Who? You? Never seen the day…….

46 minutes ago!! Way past your bedtime. You must be enjoying the slopes.