I pulled a few more shiners out last night, that's 244 large shiners since May 29th. Add that to the 308 I pulled out last August and September that's 552 large GSH in the last year out of my 1/4 acre pond. That's a density of 2208 large GSH/acre.
Those numbers are just incredible. Do you think it's because of the smaller gape of the SMB compared to a LMB that they can't keep up with the GSH? Would adding a few same-sex LMB help out?
The GSH got out of control after my fish kill in 2019 that got most of my smallies. I restocked with 3" to 4" SMB. The shiners that hatched last summer are in the 4" to 5 1/2" size range. Basically lots of competition with a lot shiners that are too large for the predators currently in the pond.
