Population Balance

Fish harvests can indicate population balance

In a balanced pond you will see small fish fingerlings and minnows along the edge. You should catch moderately large bream along with bass over 12 inches long. ("Bream" is a popular term for a variety of sunfish species such as bluegill, shellcracker or redear, green sunfish, etc.) If you are catching extra large bream and small, skinny bass, your bass are probably overcrowded. The most common situation is to have many small bream, a few large bass, and hardly any small bass. That is an indication that the bream are overcrowded. Almost anytime you catch crappie, shad, bullheads, carp, suckers, etc., you have an undesirable population which will be difficult to balance. (Bullheads are easily mistaken for channel catfish. However, channel catfish have forked tails and bullheads have squared off or rounded tails.)

The only sure way to correct an improper fish population is to remove all of the fish and restock. However, many people are not willing to kill and remove all the fish in their pond. Stocking advanced fingerlings of predator species such as largemouth bass or hybrid striped bass may reduce the overcrowding of small forage fish. We have seen overcrowded bream populations improved by stocking 50 largemouth bass or 15 hybrid striped bass per acre that are 5 to 8 inches long.