Hey guys I am stocking a pond that has been on my in-laws property for over a hundred years. It is about 1/2 acre and is shaped like half an hourglass. The deepest part when full is about 12 foot.

The pond currently has bass, bluegill and minnows in it. The bluegill that I have caught on my fly rod look healthy and range from 3-4 inches. The bass in the pond that I have caught using plastic worms the past 2 days range from 6 inches up to 2lbs. 2 years ago most of the bass that I caught were in the 1-5lb range. I could catch a bass or bluegill almost every cast. Yesterday I put in some minnows and a few hybrid bluegills and after reading some of the posts I am thinking that I may have screwed up.

The pond (like most of the ponds here in Texas) got really low over the past year and had very little water in it. I am wondering if I need to take some of the bigger bass out that I have been catching in it before I put anymore minnows such as some fathead minnows. I also think that I need to stock some more bluegill in there.

I felt like I need more baitfish in the pond because it got so low. I am really unaware of how much actual baitfish I have in there other than the ones that I just stocked. Before I put the minnows and hybrids in I was seeing a lot of movement and splashes on the top of the water in the morning as well as just before dark so I assumed there was a fair amount of baitfish.

I basically dont want to spend anymore money on other fish if they are not going to last long because they will just get eaten by the bigger bass.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

In addition the pond usually has lots of submerged grass in it during the spring and summer months. I placed a few concrete blocks with limbs and sprinkler tubing in various places in the pond to add some structure. Today I am planning on putting some brush for the minnows and possibly a couple of groups of logs for additional structure. There is no weeds or cattails around the pond so I felt like I needed to create some type of structure for the bass.

I may have been too focused on creating a pond to catch bass in that I have done things in the wrong order.

JB,

You're too hard on yourself ...I doubt that you have hurt anything. Probably just fed your bass some expensive food.

Fatheads won't last long in waters with mature bass...and the hybrid bluegills, unless they were 6 inches or so, probably became bass food also.

If it were me, I'd wait awhile and get a better feel for what you have after the drought. Check your bass through the spring with some relative weight measurements. That will tell you a lot about what you have and what you need. Until you get a better feel for what you have, you may be wasting money adding anything. If you aren't familiar with RW, check out this link:

http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-1193/ANR-1193.pdf

Thanks for the input. So at what point would I decide if I need to take out some of the bigger bass so I can let my forage fish have a chance to establish better. I would like to stock some more bass at some point but if the bigger fish are going to just eat them and the forage fish I think I would just be wasting my money and efforts.
A few years back I had caught a bass close to 8lbs out of there so I would think that the habitat in there could eventually yeild another one some day if I do things right.
Thanks again for any help or suggestions.

If/when your relative weights on bass are low, consider removing bass. Personally, I prefer to remove small bass, all that I catch, i.e. those less than about 14 inches, and keep larger fish to continue to grow. By removing those small fish, you can significantly improve your forage.

Another way to give your bass a boost and improve the forage is to stock some Tilapia next spring, assuming you have water in the pond. The Tilapia will convert algae into bass food(themselves) and in doing so will take pressure off the bluegill population enabling it to expand.

I've had much more success managing the numbers of predators, as opposed to adding forage. Adding fatheads and/or small 'gills to an existing population of bass is not as effective, IMO, as removing or adding bass as the need arises.


Getting an 8 pound bass out of a 1/2 acre pond is great and hopefully you will see more.

Thanks. I will post back and let you know what I find out. Thanks again for your input Meadowlark!

Make sure you have tons of shallow habitat for the forage to hide and grow larger in. If the forage can reach bigger sizes, predator fish will get bigger. 10 pounds of forage fish to gain one pound on a bass. Grow your own forage in shallow habitat