Text Box: 1) Do not stock adult fish from other ponds, lakes or rivers into new ponds. - In order to support adult fish a pond must have a large, balanced, self sustaining forage base. This takes time to develop. Adult fish stocked from other ponds will upset the developing forage population before it has a chance to reach a self sustaining level. As a result, the pond will never be capable of supporting adult fish without severe and expensive corrective action. Such a situation could only be corrected by draining the pond and starting over or the stocking of thousands of larger fish (5-6+ inches) per acre. A successful, well balanced fish population requires time to grow. Stocking adult fish into a new pond is not a shortcut to quality fishing. 2) Establish forage base before stocking bass in bass/bluegill/redear ponds. -Before predators are stocked a pond must have a self sustaining food supply. Bluegill, redear and minnows stocked in the fall or spring will grow fat and happy in preparation for the summer spawning season. Once spawning has begun and small, baby fish are abundant (May-Sept.), 1 to 3 inch bass may be stocked. By waiting until the bluegill have spawned you ensure that the bass will have enough food of the proper size to sustain themselves. As the bass grow so do the bluegill and redear populations creating a balanced predator prey relationship. Stocking bass first is a recipe for disaster because forage fish populations will never become established. Some pond owners prefer to stock bass first and add shiners or shad on a monthly basis to “feed their bass”, not only is this wrong but it is very expensive! 3) Stock Redear Sunfish (shellcracker) from the start in all ponds. - Redear sunfish (shellcracker) eat snails, a host of grubs, a parasite which will infect bass, bluegill and catfish. It is best to stock redear from day one to ensure their presence in the pond. Waiting until your fish have grubs means that your pond has big fish requiring you to stock larger redear to eat the snails. Large redear are often scarce and very expensive. 4) Do not over harvest bass in bass/bluegill/redear ponds. -As the primary target of fisherman largemouth bass are easily over harvested upsetting the predator prey relationship necessary to create quality fishing. If to many bass are removed, bluegill will overpopulate eventually eating any baby bass produced resulting in poor fishing. Bass should not be removed from new ponds until the bass have spawned twice and baby bass are established. Harvest quotas and slot limits should be established to maintain a balanced fish population. 5) Do not under harvest bass in bass/bluegill/redear ponds. -As the most popular game fish largemouth bass are sometimes overprotected by fisherman resulting in to many bass upsetting the predator prey relationship necessary to create quality fishing. If to few bass are harvested they will overpopulate eating up all of the forage resulting in many small skinnny bass. Harvest quotas and slot limits should be established to maintain a balanced fish population. Most ponds on average can only sustain 50 to 75 pounds of bass per acre. That works out to 10 to 15 five pound bass per acre or 50 to 75 one pound bass per acre. To grow trophy bass some must be harvested. This is done by releasing only the biggest, healthiest bass and the smallest, youngest bass while harvesting only skinny bass and abundant 1 pound bass. To produce quality bass fishing, only the biggest and smallest bass should be harvested, while the abundant 1 pound bass should be released. 6) Florida Bass and Coppernose Bluegill do best in warm climates. -Florida strain largemouth bass and coppernose bluegill are not very cold tolerant. In colder climates ponds stocked with florida bass and coppernose bluegill experience mortality under ice cover. Many pondowners stock florida bass and coppernose bluegill because they have been told that these strains have a fast growth rate and reach large sizes. In reality these strains are native to warm climates (Florida, southern Georgia and Alabama) with extremely mild (stress free) winters allowing them to live longer and thus grow to large sizes. In colder climates with cold (high stress) winters these strains may not perform as well. Maximum size is a function of food availability, competition and age; genetics are linked geographically to climate. Northern strain bass and bluegill are native to colder climates, survive the winters and will reach quality sizes sought after by pondowners with proper management. 7) Do not stock crappie in ponds less than 2 acres - Crappie have a boom or bust reproduction cycle often resulting in overcrowded ponds. To prevent overpopulation crappie require large ponds with lots of habitat (submerged brush) and a healthy population of small largemouth bass. Small ponds are often not capable of providing the habitat needed to support healthy crappie populations. 8) Do not mix Hybrid Bream with other sunfish (bluegill, coppernose) - The advantage of hybrid bream is that 80 to 95% of hybrid bream are male, limiting reproduction allowing more fish to reach quality sizes. Mixing hybrid bream and other sunfish (bluegill, coppernose) changes the male to female ratio allowing hybrid bream males to breed with the other sunfish females. This results in the production of thousands of inbred fish which resemble green sunfish, compete with the hybrid bream for food and will not grow to large sizes. 9) Stock Fathead Minnows as forage for bass in Hybrid Bream Ponds. - Hybrid bream populations are 80 to 95% male limiting reproduction resulting in very few small fish to serve as forage for the bass. Without large numbers of small forage fish, largemouth bass will not grow to quality sizes. To grow bass in Hybrid bream ponds fathead minnows should be stocked periodically. 10) Do stock either catfish or bass in Hybrid Bream ponds to control/eliminate reproduction. - Although hybrid bream reproduction is limited, some will occur resulting in small numbers of inbred offspring that will keep reproducing and compete with the hybrid bream for food. If this reproduction is allowed to occur fishing in the pond will be destroyed as the small inbred fish take over. Once this occurs the only way to improve fishing is to drain the pond and start over. Stocking bass or catfish with the hybrid bream ensures that the small inbred fish will be eaten. The catfish can be grown to large sizes on feed in hybrid bream ponds, however don’t expect the bass to grow very large as there simply is not enough food to support them.

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