Pond Management: Harvesting Largemouth Bass, Bluegill, & Bream in Recreational Fishing Ponds

A key to creating and maintaining fishing quality in ponds is proper fish harvest. This video outlines the considerations and recommendations towards properly harvesting ponds in the Southeast that contain populations of both bass and bream. The size of the pond, productivity (fertility), and fishing strategy or goal all play a role in determining the annual harvest rates for both bream and bass. In addition, we also discuss proper fish measurement, maintaining harvest records, and also techniques to help pond owners reach their annual harvest requirements. If you have questions towards your personal pond management goals and harvest requirements, please call your local extension office for assistance.

[@Papatoole]

As a soon to be first time pond owner this was super helpful. Even a guy from GA can say thanks to Auburn once in a while :D

[@luckysniper1659]

What if you have tons of small bass AND bluegill?

[@ebear4015]

Our community lake of 56 acres seems to have an abundance of bluegill. As a bass fisherman, most bass are between 2.5 and 3.5 pounds. Should I start taking some bluegill out?

[@Husker68135]

Thanks for posting this, We recently purchased a private 17 acre quarry lake that has crazy amounts of largemouth bass. It's sat unmanaged and un-fished for probably 5 years and you can catch bass as fast as you can throw a lure in the water. They're almost all the same exact size so this really explains the why. My bigger question is what to do with all the fish. It's just my wife and I so we're not going to be eating that much fish. Any other pointers to offload them? I guess we could look for food pantries.

[@sethmuehlstein6970]

Put them in a cooler with water and a small aerator you can get one at academy or other sporting goods stores and then take the fish and release them in another pond that needs fish or river /lake etc.

[@joergenkarljohanssoniii3848]

Musky or pike will eat the small bass and leave the bluegills.

[@get_locd_in]

If you’re near GA my Bestfriend and I would love to come fish em out for you, Lol!

[@Charsept]

This is good info. Thanks.

[@lukedog7028]

My experience has been when lake gets out of whack your best bet is to rotonon the whole thing and start over. It is cheaper than hiring fancy fish folks and works 100% of the time.

[@TFreshour08]

Question if anyone sees this. I'm trying to bring my two families lakes back to life a bit. Definitely won't be a buncha fish frying going on. Rather than just bleeding them out and throwing em back in. Should I chop up the bass and then chum the lake up with them?

[@fishinfool3795]

Why not eat them. I'm sure they are tasty and a great source of protein.

[@FortWayneFishTanks]

I have about a 1 acre pond, it has very few but large bass, and a good number of 5-10 lb channel cats. the bluegills used to be small due to the limited bass numbers, but I have been harvesting and have implemented a feeding program for the bluegills and cats. pond has very little structure and has dye, so limited vegetation. i have put around 45 adult cats in there, and I there was a small population before hand. should I add more bass, or would that be overkill? the catfish are eating a fair number of gills as well. I'm just worried about a winter kill with so many large predators. The pond is in Indiana so it can get cold in the winter months.

[@sbradl16]

It will depend on what your goals are. If you are looking for a more balanced population of bass and bluegill, then yes, you should stock more bass. If you do decide to stock more bass, you will need to stock large adult bass that cannot be easily fed on by the bass that are already in your pond. This strategy will yield more frequent catches of nice sized bass.

[@tmo4330]

Take out the catfish. they are great predators

[@fredflintstone1547]

i wish this was about catfish instead of bass

[@bensmith4563]

small bass taste better