Bill, the pond is enjoyed by the HOA, but out of 40 homes, fewer than 10 fish it. The HOA wanted to have improved fishing for large panfish. A couple of us really want it to be great for ice fishing.
I would like to have a healthy population of great bluegill 7+" Aggressive but not large LMB that are fun to catch Bonus WE and SMB (SMB will go in next spring/fall) Large YP Large HSB RES to cut down on parasites
Bullheads will be thinned by predation, fishing, and cloverleaf trap (adding another 1 or 2 next spring). The way I see it for each bullhead removed, 2 bluegill can eat and grow in its place.
My native bass larger than 14" are going to be caught and transferred to a friend's big bass pond in the spring.
Should I help nature along and be removing <5" bluegill now?
Last fall's stocking was... Largemouth Bass 6 to 8" 175 (most were over 8") Walleye - 6 to 8" 50 Hybrid Striped Bass 6 to 8" 100 (most were 9-12") Yellow Perch 3 to 5" 150 (most were 4-5") Red Ear Sunfish 3 to 5" 150 (most were 3-4")
Total number of lmb was closer to 200 and hsb were 125 I've stocked less than 10 LMB from 9-14", and 50 bluegills over 7" (11 were females)
We removed over 500 bullheads last year, and I removed 75 bluegills (3-4", skinniest by the eyeball test) caught on rod and reel or cloverleaf trap between June and August. I haven't removed any crappie and my largest native lmb (19") died/was eaten by my female snapping turtle.
