Hey all, I inherited a farm with a very small (roughly 1/2 acre) pond. Pond has nice depth to it so it can hold some fish. Pond is infested with green sunfish, which is great for the kids to catch. We have harvested a lot of the sunfish but you can still catch them nearly every cast with live worm cuts. We stocked bass fingerling, which may stand no chance against the bigger sunfish. I’ve also relocated around 10 mature sized bass into the pond, which I’m hoping will do well considering there seems to be limitless sunfish and frogs to feed on.
I’m not necessarily worried about growing large bass, I just want them to live and reproduce for the kids to catch. I know I need to try to introduce bluegill and plan to do so once we notice the sunfish population decreasing.
And one more thing, there are at least two big snapping turtles, I presume a male and female, and I’m fairly certain they have some offspring in there. Do these snappers need to go in order for the bass the survive and reproduce? It seems to me that the snapping turtles are the apex predators and may inhibit bass spawning.
Any other advice would be helpful. Thanks!
