I just started this summer. The pond is in central Texas and around 1.5 acres. I have taken out 85 5"-7" bass this summer. Plan on taking out about 40-50lbs total and I'm currently at around 25lbs, so halfway there.

I want to put in some bluegill beds using pea gravel. Any suggestions on best way to do this? Do I need a liner and then put the gravel on top? How many beds and how big should I make em?

This is all new to me but I'm excited to start managing the pond for bass. My goal is to grow some 5 lb + bass. Right now we have a ton of small runts and a few 1.5-2 lb'ers.

Any suggestions and insight is greatly appreciated!

I don't have any suggestions, but look forward to hearing the answers you get! Hoping to do the same with my pond. Right now I'm just trying to get it to hold water first. Ha! Bringing in a truckload of bentonite next week.

I've seen a photo of a truck that will directionally shoot pea gravel into ponds. Not sure where to find those though. And of course you'll still be dealing with settling into the muck.

You could buy bags of pea gravel and cut a large circle on top exposing the gravel but leaving the plastic integrity in place, and just drop a bunch of those in the pond.

And I'd strongly recommend structure for the baby bluegills as well as a fish feeder.

I generally removed fish 10" to maybe 14" and a few larger fish as well. Keep catch records for when you fish. Size and weight of all. You can tell the health of your fish this way. I think pond boss had some calculators. I have them on my work PC if you have a contact or email I can send those calculators and what docs I have tuesday. We used this document below and Mississippi a had a good management doc as well.

https://extension.rwfm.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2010/04/3_TX_Farm_Ponds.pdf

Contact a pro.

Dr. Todd Sink at TAMU Agrilife.

Great article thank you

What's your budget?

Get some food in their belly.

Tilapia, crawfish, shad......

Good idea on crawfish. ChatGPT is telling me to stock 75-150lbs for my 1.5 acres. Now if I can find were to get that many crawfish…

I would stock at least 200 bluegill and start feeding them. Make sure they have a place to hide.

any suggestions or recommendations on feeders? Also, the water level tends to fluctuate 5-10' during a few dry months out of the year. Should I put the feeder on a floating dock?

Check out this guys channel on youtube. He built a 5 acre pond from scratch specifically to fish for bass. I think he answers a lot of our questions.

I have a couple of Texas Hunter fish feeders. Have had them for about five years. Have been great.

I'd call Overton Fisheries and talk it over with them.

Forage to predator ratios are important as is water color (green indicating good plankton base) and water clarity since bass are sight predators. Jmo, you don't need to build breeding beds… the fish will do that on their own. You might need to make some mods tho so that the forage has hiding places to survive and breed in tho. One more suggestion, think about adding some tilapia. Great breeders , excellent forage base , and they slow way down in low water temps and the bass feast on them.

Make that 2 more suggestions in the event your goal is big bass. Add some grown (not fingerlings)Florida strain bass.

Update: I've taken out 150 bass as of today for a total of 33lbs removed. I'm going to try to push to 40 lbs total.

barnag said:

---

any suggestions or recommendations on feeders? Also, the water level tends to fluctuate 5-10' during a few dry months out of the year. Should I put the feeder on a floating dock?

---

I live near my pond and feed the bluegill manually every morning when I am here. It seems to work and it is a fun activity for grandchildren. I never built spawning beds but have added lots of structure for the small fish to hide in. Brush bundles, tires with pex pipe sticking out, rock piles, that sort of thing. My pond water level and clarity also fluctuates a lot. In 8 years living here I've found that about the time I start worrying about water level and clarity and contemplating spending money on it we get a big rain or whatever and everything looks good. I had a pretty bad fish kill about a year ago and lost a lot of bigger bass and bluegill. Ag agent said it was caused by low wind, high temp and low water. Fish are looking very healthy now.

I'm curious about your fish kill. Did you remove the dead fish? Would an aerator have kept it from happening ? Downside is the aeration increases evaporation so maybe counterproductive without more water .

I'm guessing he was referencing low DO causing the fish kill?

OnlyForNow said:

---

I'm guessing he was referencing low DO causing the fish kill?

---

I think that's correct. Low DO. I researched putting in aeration but at 6-9 feet I don't think it's deep enough. And there is no power down there, adding another complication.
I didn't remove the dead fish. They accumulated along the shoreline and were eaten. I was away at the time so all I found was heads, spines and some tails. Mostly bass but some large bluegill.
The good thing is a year later the bluegill are waiting for me every morning when I get close to the pier and react like piranhas when I throw out the food. And I've caught several bass in the 3-4# range. Water looks great.

9 feet is certainly deep enough, but it'll take a good sized aerator to stir up the water (not cheap) and it's not a for-sure thing that it'll fix a DO issue if there a other contributing factors.

Yeah , if the water is super hot it can't hold much DO. An aerator and some way to cool down the water might both be required .

You could consider propane for powering an aerator.

Do you have any feel for how hot the water got in your fish kill event?

halfastros81 said:

---

You could consider propane for powering an aerator.

Do you have any feel for how hot the water got in your fish kill event?

---

I've never done any temperature or DO measurements. The local ag agent said she heard multiple reports of fish kills in ponds about the same time. It was in September a year ago and the water level was at a low point probably not more than 5-6 ft max with a lot of 2-4 ft. There was a stretch of windless days at over 100 deg. Like I said this year it looks great and the fish are thriving.

yea with all the rain we've got this year, this is the fullest I've seen our pond in 25+ years at this time of year.

Update as of today. I've taken out 174 bass, roughly 37lbs of bio mass. Will start shifting gears soon and focus on creating habitat for the bass and bluegill. I'll cut cedar trees and drop them in the pond, bring in and create some rock piles, create pea gravel beds for spawning and start a fish feeder next March.

rancher1953 said:

---

I would suggest go to Pond Boss website and watch his podcast on your subject. Bob Lusk has been the go to expert for a number of years. You cannot go wrong with his advice.

https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=cfrm

---

I met Bob back in 1985 when I was the the manager and biologist for Sugarloaf Hunting Club just outside of Crowell, Texas. He stocked 3-4 of our lakes and turned them into a fisherman's dream. Smart man. Good Ag!