Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Deciphering a 20+ year old unmanaged pond

If you push the reset button and kill the fish, you could get a piece of equipment in there (if the land allows) and dig out the muck that has accumulated over the years. It would be a LOT quicker if there wasn't water in there. Do that this year, stock minnows in the Fall, stock panfish in the Spring and your predators in early Summer. If your goals are to grow large panfish, you can have 8" Hybrid Bluegills in 2 years or less, depending on the size of the stockers. In a 2/3 acre pond I wouldn't recommend going with Largemouth Bass because of the low numbers of larger LMB that the pond can hold. They would be hook shy in a few years.

I don't know if Hybrid Striped Bass are available or legal there, but usually you can get some in the 10"-12" range as stockers. They grow very fast on good food, and they fight like crazy. I've stocked 4"-6" HSB in the Spring and had them 10"-12" by the Fall, and 14"-16" by the next Fall.