Your Pond

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Comment by 10.5" RES Sharon on January 23, 2010 at 12:13pm

About building a pond, a neighbor had a 4 acre pond built for $14K. Yes, that's right. Does that seem like a reasonable price? Hardly seems worth it to me. What are your tips about getting one built for a reasonable price?

Comment by 10.5" RES Sharon on January 23, 2010 at 12:10pm

My Bluegill are finally starting to feed again. Since about Nov. I've been using AquaMax #300 instead of catfish food. For a long time I was afraid they didn't like it as they previously ate the cf food fine. Turns out they were just not eating at all. Hurry up spring!!!! I have three ponds, one for minnows and mosquito fish, the other 2 that are connected have less than 12 catfish (counted them in the summer when they were eating) and 150 total bluegill of hybrid, coppernose, and bluegill. It is my hope to be able to sell the small BG to the local bait shop, the bigger ones to the local restaurants. My question would be do you think I have the numbers right? Is 150 too many for 1/4 acre pond? Do I need more catfish to keep the numbers down? (yuk)

Comment by Magnolia Rick on January 23, 2010 at 11:29am

keep the info coming. Most of us are just now jumping out to build and stock ponds. The fish suppliers will sale you fish. They will push you into over loading your pond just to sale you fish. Sites like this one and pond boss are great read site to get it right and get the out come your looking for. Headed out the back door now to catch me some bass

Comment by Magnolia Rick on January 23, 2010 at 11:26am

I think your most likley right about the bass. I have some more land that I'm think about building another pond this one about and acre and move my bass to there with corpies and bluegill for there forage. I'm setup right now with add 5lb of flathead minnow a month to the pond along with the feed from the feeded.

Comment by Walt Foreman on January 23, 2010 at 11:14am

It's almost impossible to grow both big bass and big bluegill in a pond. Also, if your bluegill are hybrids, those don't spawn enough to provide the necessary forage for bass, so your bass aren't going to grow much.

It's very difficult to grow big bass in a pond that small - it just takes too much forage. You might be better off managing the pond for big bluegill, which is very doable in a pond that size. Hybrid bluegill will get very large on high-protein pellet food, though their offspring don't grow nearly as large as the original stockers due to genetic regression.

You could take out at least a hundred bass and still have enough to keep the hybrid bluegill thinned, assuming you haven't already kept some bass. But the bass aren't going to grow well with hybrid bluegill for their only forage source. Even if you had regular bluegill which spawn more prolifically, a pond that size can only grow a couple trophy bass, so you're better off just going for trophy bluegill and not worrying about the bass.

Comment by Magnolia Rick on January 23, 2010 at 10:33am

I need to note that the gills are hybird 80% male offspring
a cross with a sunfish give them the big mouth so the kids can catch them eazier. Right now I catch 10 bass to 1 gill

Comment by Magnolia Rick on January 23, 2010 at 10:29am

I added the bluegill in Sept. There were bass in the pond where the fingerling were added. I think haft were eaten by the bas I have in the pond. Ya I'm feed them and they all look fat. I think this summer I'll start taking out the bass under 8" then see where the gills are at. What do you think?

Comment by Magnolia Rick on January 23, 2010 at 10:22am

As you can see from my pond picture it’s not real big it is a retention pond just out my back door.
275ft long and about 55 to 60 ft wide in places. Pond 14 to 10 ft deep and is an iornor base.
I have a pump on both ends doing about 300 gpm to keep oxidation. I spray to keep the algae under control. This is my first attempt to have a fish pond and can and will take any advice. My goal is large bass and bluegills. There are several ponds around my place that will take what ever I take out.
(That I don’t eat)

Comment by Walt Foreman on January 23, 2010 at 10:13am

Hey Rick, are you trying to grow big bass or big bluegill? If you're after mainly big bluegill, you've got way too many bluegill for a pond that size. I assume you're feeding them? If you have an automatic feeder you'll still get decent growth with them, but not nearly what you would if there were about half that many (or less) in there. The bass numbers are very high for a pond that size as well, but that's a good thing as long as you don't exceed carrying capacity because the bass will keep the bluegill from having much success spawning so the bluegill don't become even more numerous.

I would probably thin the bass out to around 100, and thin the bluegill way down, to around 200 or so, if you're after really big bluegill. If you just want a lot of eating-size bluegill you're fine with the numbers you have now as long as you feed them.

Comment by Magnolia Rick on January 23, 2010 at 9:56am

ok guys here we go. Ya all seen my little pond 1/2 to 3/4 acre. 500 blue gill 200 bass. Right now everything looking OK just gotta keep an eye on the gill to keep the bass from over running pond. March is spanning time here in south Texas. What do ya think my out come will be? Bass are 6" to 14" now. Bluegill abour ^" to 8"

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