Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Building a dam Pond Spillway

Git...The MO and NE guidelines are about 50 years old and frankly...wrong....MDC publishes general guidelines, but does not follow them in the public lake stockings and opt for the 10:1 rate. Your pond has a finite carrying capacity and improper stocking or overstocking can stunt the fish or make disrupt the original balance of the predator/prey relationship.

BG will spawn several times per year and be the main food source for the Bass...The best proved stocking ratio is 10:1 Your RES grow slower, yet larger than BG and are there to eat snails that host the grub parasite...RES only spawn once annually and won't produce an adequate forage source. They serve a specific purpose in the pond's ecosystem and are a great "unexpected" catch plus they're great table fare.

I suggested a 75% stocking rate because I know your pond's general location and the surrounding grounds are a little less fertile than needed for stocking 1000 BG. I would not stock 100 LMB in a one acre pond in your area....Your Bass will spawn in a year and over-populate faster, grow considerably slower and require more intensive management to prevent/correct.

The fish CAN be stocked together or separately, but overall growth is going to be better for all species if forage fish are stocked one growing season before the predators...ie..BG stocked in Spring and predators the following Fall of the same year...CC, if used, can be stocked with the forage as they are a poor predator and make no notable impact. Feeding a good quality fish food such as Aquamax can over double the first year growth also.

2 lb of FH (that's only about 5 FH for each BG to eat) with the BG won't be able to reproduce enough for good growth rates on either the BG or LMB when introduced. If it were my pond, and it's not, I would add another 10 pounds of FH asap and 10 pounds of Golden Shiners. The FH will be gone in a year or two after the bass, but the shiners will likely establish a reproducing population and add another forage source for your BG, RES and LMB.

After one fish farm was sold a couple years ago, IMO, Missouri no longer has a good quality fish farm for pond owners, but that has only made me busier...lol

Bottom line is... It's all about what YOU want from your pond and what YOUR goals are. A puddle can grow fish but it takes an informed owner, quality fish stock and good management practices to create a quality fishing pond for generations to come....IMO, the MDC program gets an average MO pond about 5 years of decent fishing of a few medium sized fish before stunting badly.

I always ask clients why they spend $1000's on building a pond for fishing, then skimp or cut corners on what all that money was spent for to begin with...the fish. We closely check out our builder's qualifications, research and plan the pond extensively, create great habitat for fish to thrive, then stock whatever fish are readily available of an unknown quality or source at rates that are questionable and then wonder what went wrong a few years later with what all that research was intended to create.