Thanks for the nice comments...I have put these on
http://www.bigbluegill.comTo be honest, I just did what I was told. It was the experts on this forum and personal guidance from Todd that made all the difference. The stocking rates, feed, and structure ideas came from here, while Todd specifically targeted my size pond and goals. I want to have a good LMB fishery, so I built the pond with hills, dips, points, etc..., and included a gravel field, rock piles, tire bundle, and sunken Christmas trees. I also have geothermal coils in bottom.
I think the real key is that I started out with 118 hungry mouths (50 feed trained native LMB, 18 FLA LMB, and 50 HSB) and 100 4-5" CNBG from Todd. As the predators grew bigger, they probably ate lot of the 3-5" CNBG and babies, so when the Tilapia (10 lbs) kicked in, the larger CNBG had little competition or pressure. We fed AQMX 500 in the early spring and switched to 600 when we started catching fish with bigger mouths. I will say that the FLA LMB and YOY native LMB are always just under 1.0 RW while the feed trained LMB and HSB are above 1.2 RW. This leads me to believe I am short on small/med forage.
My pond gets no runoff water, as I have raised banks to increase depth. I use my well water to keep it topped off (not cheap BTW). I think this led to very clear water and a huge chara problem last summer. The weeds probably helped the CNBG escape predation, as you could barely move through the thick stuff. I used aquashade in Oct/Nov to destroy the chara, and at one point could see down 9 ft.
With Todd's advice, I am going to fertilize this year, as my water has already cleared from 18" to 40+" visibility as it warmed up (70F surface temp last week). I think this will help with the smaller end of the food chain and get more 3-4" CNBG in play.
As Ewest noted, the growing season is long here. I don't think I have gone 2 days in a row without feeding since Thanksgiving.
Without this site and folks like Todd I would be lost.
Thanks Again !!
Pond at sunrise, 3/4 acre
Chara problem in early summer -- it got worse !!
3.5 lb HSB
Tilapia after 3 months growth
