bluegill

Pond enhancements such as adding pelleted feed or stocking threadfin shad (Dorosoma petenense) are sometimes used in the management of pond fisheries, but their relative impacts on growth and reproduction at multiple levels of the food web are not often fully evaluated. We used stable isotope analysis to indicate the contribution of pelleted feed to bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) reproduction and growth, and ultimately to largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) growth in the presence and absence of threadfin shad via two different approaches: a pond experiment and sampling of established...

Increasingly, new innovative management approaches are being used in small ponds that contain largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) and bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) to increase the quality of largemouth bass fisheries. One approach is to stock additional forage fish. Threadfin shad (Dorosoma petenense) were stocked into two small Alabama ponds (1.9 and 5.3 ha) in 2007, 4 yrs after renovation and restocking with largemouth bass and bluegill (1:15 stocking ratio) to improve largemouth bass relative weight (Wr) and length distributions. Threadfin shad inhabited these two ponds for about 2...