During the period 1943 to 1946, several combinations of largemouth black bass (Micropterus salmoides) and bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) were stocked in ponds on the station grounds at Leetown, West Virginia. These ponds were fertilized with 12–5–5, inorganic fertilizer, but when water blooms failed to control the submerged vegetation, sodium arsenite or copper sulfate was occasionally used for this purpose.
Bluegill‐bass ratios varying from 8:1 to 15:1 were used. Inventories of ponds showed that approximately 199 pounds of edible fish per acre could be produced annually in well managed ponds at Leetown regardless of the stocking ratio employed. The average size of bluegills varied inversely with the number stocked. The smallest bluegills, produced in the 15:1 bluegill‐bass ratio, averaged about 5.7 inches in fork length, compared with about 6.5 inches from the 8:1 ratio. Largemouth bass failed to make good growth in the 15:1 ratio, averaging only 9.3 inches compared with 10.2 inches in the 8:1 ratio.
The fact that in two ponds 71 percent of the largemouth black bass in the original stocking were removed during a brief period suggests that good pond management may include removal of the fish in the same ratio as the original stocking, to assure maintenance of a balance of species.
