Hey new to the site thanks to my panfish fanatic father-in-law. We both love the format and all things bream.
Several questions going into a restocking of a 2 acre Mississippi pond that is five years removed from 1250 bronze nose and 750 F-10 LMB stocking. The pond is very deep (most 8-12 ft. with lots of 18 ft along dam side). We intend on implementing aggressive feeding program (protein and more protein) and putting more bronzenose (4000) and a good many shellcrackers (750-1000). I have read other blog strings on this site about the difficulty with redear stocking (forage problems, small stocking size, not cooperative with feeding programs, etc.) and have some questions on redear. We think redear are the most fun for entire family and certainly biggest we have dealt with to date, hence the abnormal OCD on all things shellcracker:
1. snails and other redear forage. Does anyone have ideas on preferred varieties of snails or other mollusks for redear in the South Eastern U.S.? FIL lives on historic redear fishery and the lake has lots of mussels and snails. Could we simply figure out a way to transplant forage or should we consider commercial stocking. If so, anyone out there doing mollusk stockings or is that just crazy thought. Seems easy way to make ideal habitat for redear but nothing is easy.
2. More snails and redear forage. Does anyone know what food those hypothetical preferred varieties enjoy consuming. I understand generally that snails like to eat submerged woody material along with aquatic plants. Aside from liming and regular fertilizer would I be planning on putting anything else in system to promote snail/mussel propogation?
3. FIL's historic redear fishery. Any negatives on pulling big redear from lake and transporting into pond along with the fingerlings? I get parasites but the genes are great for 2-3 lb. bruisers.
4. LMB- those F-10's are huge and lurking all over pond. Do we need to rid the lake of these bass as they appear to be mowing down 6-8 inch BG in present condition. Have ability to transplant LMB to nearby lakes so it makes sense to us.
5. structure- What is best bang for buck, whole trees pulled into deep end of lake, or handmade structures, deep water in particular.
6. sand/pea gravel- yea or nea? Fished over both entire life but not sure if redear would prefer deep or shallow placement.
Thanks in advance. Anybody have opinions on maximizing 2 acre pond for quality redear and BG output including adding structure, harvest makeup, etc. etc. its greatly appreciated.
Hooked.
