Today I released 20 (perfect sized bass forage) sunfish into our local private pond to replace for the lost amount of forage fish in our pond. We lost a ton of sunfish (the Largemouth Bass forage fish in our pond) during the flood. We are catching the sunfish in a close-by river and putting the good sized ones in a large container and releasing them in the pond. We will continue to do this and fatten up our bass once again.

Please comment if you think this is good and if I should keep doing this.

PLEASE REPLY! thank you if you do

That is a very good idea. I would keep on doing it if you have bass in your pond already. The key is getting the bluegill you're putting in to spawn next year in the spring to get an good forage base going to support the bass.

go buy a pinfish trap and catch a ton of them, then put them in. if you are worried about forage populations in a small pond, load it up.

you should also try to catch some big hand sized bream and throw them in, for brood stock next year.

You will be doing yourself a big favor if you put in bluegill that are too large for your fish to eat. They will spawn and reproduce next spring and summer, and get your food change back on track.

A Bass that eats 5 - 10 pounds of forage only gains 1 pound. It certainly won't hurt to do what you are doing but you are getting much less benefit than you might think. That is why it is generally a poor investment to add purchased forage like fat head minnows or gills for direct consumption by an established bass population. Work the food chain and you will be on your way back to a improved fisherie.

One option is to put the bluegills into a seperate breeder pond until you get them up in size, or find a way to section off a part of your existing pond for the gills until next spring.

agree. otherwise, it's a one way trip and wont be many left to breed. Try to get some grown coppernose, I believe their spawn rate is enormous, and they provide great forage for bass

Thank you everyone! I know a lot more about this now! The bass will slowly but surely fatten up again.

About to go do the same thing on friday! My goal is to get 50 sunfish in the pond this time!

I am keeping a journal monitoring how many sunfish I release in the pond, how many genetically small fish i release in a river, and how many and how heavy the bass get.

I have a Length by Weight graph that you could use to compare the bass you catch to Texas Quality Bass. You could use this as a before and after measure. You can google this Relative Weight data from TPWL and make your own graph, or email me, and I will send you the graph I use.

Cool I found it! thanks

I would ck with TP&W, Game Warden told me it was Illegal to trap perch from public waters.

It's not public waters. We catch the sunfish in a river within our private property!

All rivers are public, regardless if it crosses your property.