Fishing Forum

When do you think the best time of year would be to stock our private pond here on the farm? We hit it pretty hard over the summer and took quite a few big bass and bluegills out this year. They are the only species in the pond right now. (Except for the crayfish and a big turtle known as "Buck")

I know of a great spot to catch small bluegills by the dozens (1-2 inches) in minnow traps. Grandpa says he wants to get rid of some of the bass as there is A LOT of them at the 6-9 inch range that eat pretty much anything and everything that touches the surface. He wants less bass and more bluegills.

Only problem is if I stock 1-2 inch bluegills the bass are just going to eat them all. My thinking is harvest some of the smaller bass and then just restock the gills. Hopefully in a couple years of doing that things will change from a bass pond to more of a gill pond. I'd also like to stock a mountain of perch but I don't know where to get them from. I'm sure it would be big $$$ to buy them and I don't want to spend that much cash just so the bass can have a feast and have them all gone in a matter of days if not minutes.

Ok.. so anyway back to the questions. When (what time of year) would be the best time to stock bluegills? Perch? Would it be better to do it at night or during the day?

I'm half tempted to just throw in 3-4 nice size pike and let them clean out the pond and just start over. Only problem with that is it would be 3-4 years before fishing would be any good again stocking from stratch again.

Pond is about 2 acre's and is about 14 feet at it's deepest point.

Thanks for any help.
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Any time of the year is good for the Gills. I would use them as bait to catch the LMB.

If you were to plant Pike, I would only plant 1 of them. That is enough to destroy the current ecology and you would only have to catch 1 in order to be able to restrore your lake to a good point.[cool]
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The warmer months are better for stocking ponds. If you transfer fish from one place to another, and the water temp is drastically different, it will kill the fish. During the warmer months when the fish's metabolism increases, their tolerance for water temp differences is much higher.

Just like tubeN2 said, I wouldn't recomend adding a pike or jack fish to your pond. And if you did, just one. They'll not only eat the bass, but the bream too. Use minnows on a bobber rig to catch the smaller bass and either transport them to a larger body of water, clean and eat them, or scratch them off as a casualty of war.

I would recomend you add white crappie to your list of fish species, as well as blue gills only. With that said, once you get the bass under control, start adding structure to the pond if there isn't some already. As in previous posts, christmas trees are a great natural habbitat for crappie and bream when sunk in a deep or moderately deep hole.
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The Christmas tree idea is a good one for deeper lakes. In a 14 foot deep lake like was described, you have the option of Shopping Carts and Milk Crates.[cool]
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Ahhh yes, the urban lake structure. Seen it used many times in New Haven. []
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