Thanks for all of the responses. Dave,I found the Dunn's web site and your right the bass they sell are of the fla/northern strain. How well do they tolerate the cold weather?
There aren't but 2 ponds in this county, that I know of, that the owners actually stock and attempt to manage. One of them has is about 1/4 acre pond that is full of 8 inch LM bass and hybrid bluegill. The owner obviously isn't managing properly. The other pond is a club pond about 2 acres. It has decent LM bass up to about 4lbs and believe it or not really good crappie fishing. Most of the crappie I caught were 10 inch fish. The club rules allow 2 bass over 14 inches(never seen anyone keep one). The main fish that they stock are channel catfish several times a year and thats what about everyone fishes for. There is no limit on the crappie at this pond. This area is pretty arid so not many people have ponds around here. Everything else is tailwater pits with bullheads. The closest public lake has walleye, yellow perch, blue catfish, crappie, smallmouth bass and largemouth. Some of the other lakes within 90 or so miles have really good hybrid striper fishing. All of these lakes the main forage is gizzard shad.
Ty, I really like the idea about a few bonus walleye, even though they can't reproduce.(maybe a good thing) How would catfish affect a SM bass/walleye/yellow perch pond? What about a few redear sunfish as well?
Swampstalker, I've got plenty of snails and crawdads for those redears. How far north does the coppernose range go?
The main goal for the pond is not knowing what your going to catch. Personally thats what I like about fishing. I'm not too woried about how big the fish get as long as they are not all 8 in. I realize that stocking alot of predators is risky and not all species will spawn in my pond. I'll probably end up with one species of predator dominating the pond, but I can be there everyday to survey and manage it as best I can.
With alot of predator species could I stock gizzard shad as forage?
There is plenty of cover with all of the chara and brush piles for the perch and bluegill to hide. So many options I don't know if I'll ever decide what to stock. Thanks for taking the time to help me out.
