Hello!
Long time lurker, first time poster.
Dozer will be on site in a few weeks to start my new one acre pond here at the house.
My plan is to aerate, feed, and place plenty habitat in this pond.
As far as what I want to stock, HBG and CC is what I’m concentrating on. Don’t have enough room for bass in just an acre in my opinion.
I understand this will be a “put and take” situation and i’m ok with that.
Do y'all this is a good combo and what other suggestions do you have?

I live in La Grange, Texas about an hour southeast of Austin.

Thanks for your time,
Noel

Welcome to the forum. Contractor better be bringing more than a dozer to the party...

Any test holes dug yet? If so, any sand, gravel or rock excavated? Has clay plasticity been determined? What's the watershed size? Have you discussed how the core trench will be constructed? Does contractor own a sheepsfoot roller? If not, how will core trench be compacted and basin/sidewalls?

I've helped hundreds of guys nationwide with leaking ponds and without exception they all wished they'd found us [Pond Boss] before they started the project. Thankfully, you just have. If you want to chat I can provide a checklist of what the pond builder should be doing - if any of these steps are unfamiliar to the contractor, seek another contractor. Too much to relate here, not much of a typist these days, but can cover a lot of ground on a short call. Happy to help, it's my duty as a volunteer here, and my time is free to this community.

TJ

tj@hudlandmgmt.com

I’ve always thought that only Bluegills can spawn enough to feed bass and only bass can control the rolling spawns that bluegills have in most of Texas.

And only fishing can keep bass culled enough to have a balanced pond.

Welcome to posting. CC and HBG will work in a put and take fishery, but add FH to start. I would also add a few RES (50) when you add the FH.

Call TJ and then call Mike Otto (dry TX expert pond builder). There is a lot more to planning a pond than just digging a hole.

If you need another predator in there, I'd add some Hybrid Striped Bass vs. LMB. Look into feeding the fish too. They will grow a lot faster, so the time between put and take is much shorter.

One can easily grow 6-7 lb LMB in a 1 ac TX pond. Proper harvest of small bass, habitat, pellet feeding and aeration help a lot to achieve this goal. Good clay soil, proper compaction are important parts so you don't end up with a leaky hole where you come back here for advice and help to fix the leaks. Do it right the first time or you will spend twice the money trying to fix leaks.

+1 on all this.

Thanks guys.
Yes, contractor is bringing more than just a dozer. That was just a generalization.
Test holes, watershed study, etc has all been done.

Why would I need FH and RES in first? If I'm just stocking HBG and CC wouldn’t feeding be their primary “food”?

Thanks again for your time.

The Fatheads will help boost growth on your CC, and maybe a bit on the HBG depending on their size. If the Fatheads can pull off a few spawns before you put in predators, it will help Eventually the fatheads will dwindle to very few.

The Red Ear Sunfish will keep snails down to a minimum in your pond, and that will help prevent grubs/parasites in the flesh of the fish that you want to harvest/eat.

Ah, makes sense. Thank you.
So, FHM and RES this year and the rest next year?

Did you ever say if you were going to use fish feed? If so, you may be able to do a spring forage stocking and a fall predator stocking, but if you are not going to feed, you'll need a lot of forage fish to grow the Channel Cats and then I would lean towards a 1 year separation between forage fish and predator fish.

Also, if not feeding, I would wonder about sustainability of the forage base.

Yes sir will be feeding.

That really expands the potential.

Have you given any thought as to how many CC or HBG you will harvest each year? You may be able to find some optimal number of fish per seasonal batch of stocking where the forage base remains somewhat intact while you are harvesting the fish you want, and letting the next date class grow.


Also, do you want the CC to reproduce? If so, they you need some specific structures for them to do it.

The pond would be a lot easier to manage if they didn't reproduce in the pond.

NST,

I did a similar post a while back. I received a lot of good advice from the usual suspects.

Here is the link.

Catfish Pond

I don’t think I want them to spawn. I would like to have some sort of control of numbers.

Rod,
Thanks! Alot of the same questions I have and very similar situation down to the nearby creek.
Perfect post, thanks again.

Catfish Feed Schedule

Thanks to everyone for the information, it is much appreciated.
Now, lets talk numbers. Remembering that I will be feeding, aerating, approx 1 acre of water what would stocking numbers look like for you?
FHM:
RES:

HBG:
CC:
HSB:


Thanks again

Get all the cats you want at initial stocking. They will spawn but the babies swim slowly and go everywhere in a school. Easy to pick off. I’ve tried it several times in new ponds with predators with either no luck or skill.

I've had a different response from CC Dave, but the reason I have I think is because my BG got ahead of my LMB and prevented the LMB from having recruits. Not enough predation and plenty of good places for the CC to spawn. I have had CC recruits (lots of them) ever since about two or three years after stocking. We harvest 50-60 2# plus CC every year the last few years. Right now I have way too many of harvest size that I need to either trap or fish out this next year. I bet we should take a hundred out of my 3 acre main pond this coming year. (going fully retired, wife and I have been traveling extensively so not much fishing last year). I may have to look into trapping rather than angling.

I think the CC recruitment will be over now since we are now catching small LMB (proving recruitment) plus all the SMB I transferred from my SMB pond and last year the HSB we added. I have probably went from too many BG to too many bass in short order. But my pond goals are not lofty. I just like to catch lots of fish when I go fishing as I get bored easily, so I am not a tryophy size type angler. I will have just as much fun catching small bass as I do BG.

John, you did better than me. Congrats.