 We're here to talk to you today about pond balance. Typically, ponds like I have here behind me are stocked with a combination of largemouth bass, bluegill, and sometimes reddier sunfish. Between those species, your largemouth bass can be your primary predator in the pond with your sunfish, which include bluegill and reddier, are going to be your prey species. It's important to consider and maintain balance in these ponds for optimal fishing. When discussing balance, we want to make sure that there is adequate number of each species to maintain good growth and reproduction. Typically, in ponds like this, your bluegill populations are going to be managed by your largemouth bass. However, it is the landowner's responsibility to be able to harvest largemouth bass to keep that population in check. Typical harvest numbers of largemouth bass in an unfertilized pond are 10 pounds per acre. However, in a fertilized pond, at least 25 pounds of largemouth bass should be removed per acre over a 12 month period. When harvesting largemouth bass, it is beneficial to use a select harvest by targeting fish that are in the 10 to 12 inch class for removal. One of the ways to conduct a balance check is to use a 15 foot sain net. This method looks at the reproduction and intermediate bluegill species that can be caught near the perimeter of the pond. During this method, your fisheries professional will stand on the bank while another creates an arc around to collect or sample fish that may be on the bank. When saining a pond, your fisheries professional will likely sain in several different locations to get the best picture of the reproduction in the pond. When looking at the sain data, they're looking at the reproduction of the bluegill and the largemouth bass. In a balanced pond, you will typically see first of the year largemouth bass as well as first of the year bluegill and some intermediate bluegill. As you can see in this sain hall below, we're only having first of the year recently spawned bluegill and some largemouth bass which respond this year as well too. This sain hall is typical of a bass crowded pond. In a balanced pond, your sain hall will have first of the year bass as shown right here on the right and also first of the year bluegill. You will also see some intermediate bluegill that are in the three to five inch range. Those intermediate bluegill which are three to five inches in size are crucial for your largemouth bass to grow to maximum size. A largemouth bass can forge on to bluegill up to a third of their body length in size. As we have in this sain hall below, we do not have any intermediate bluegill which signifies a bass crowded due to bass consuming those intermediate bluegill.