Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Predictions for this stocking scenario?

I learned of someone yesterday who just stocked their newly filled 1 acre pond with the the following, all at the same time:

100LMB, 100 BCP, 500 CNBG, 200 Redear, 10,000 FHM.

To me, it seems like a disaster combination, since there is no existing forage other than the FHM he is stocking, which will go fast, and the BG will not have time to spawn before they are eaten by the bass, and of course, the BCP issue in such a small pond. Am I missing something, or does he know something I don't? He bought them from a fish truck at the feed store so I'm thinking that's maybe where he got his stocking advice as well. What do you think? Could this possibly work, or should I send him a subscription to Pond Boss for Christmas?

Without a forage base the LMB and BCP will consume anything they can get into their mouth. I had a similar thing in my 5 ac puddle. I stocked fhm with CNBG,RES and BCP and 50 full grown BG. Next fall was fishing and caught a 3# LMB! That I didn’t stock! Started seeing juvenile LMB all over the place! Someone was so kind as to bucket stock an unknown number of LMB in my pond and it has taken a lot of work to get the population under control so the BG could catch up.

I've seen similar stocking just scaled up to a larger pond... In my opinion it will work.. for a while. The BCP would probably be a bigger problem than the LMB eating the BG. It will be interesting to see what others with more experience think.

IMO hard to say what the chances of it working are as no sizes for each species were provided. Also IMO if the LMB were fingerlings, then the plan might be ok. I believe the preferred stocking plan is getting the forage going before stocking the LMB but that might not be possible if your only source of fish is a fish truck. I think sometimes you have to take them when you can get them.

Just my 1 cent....

Sorry, The LMB were 3-4" and BG were just a little smaller in the 2-3" range.

This is a big "it depends" question. You would have to know the fertility of the water (plankton status) and what was there to start. Assuming all the fish were of about the same size then predation on all of them would be highly variable. The ones that could find food would grow but others would not. If the fish were feed trained and feeding was continued you would have an entirely different situation.

The real trick to stocking when going outside known proven stocking plans (even they are not guaranteed to work) is to know the risk and try to plan for it. The more variation in the plan (numbers and types of fish) the higher the risk. For example supplemental stocking with small 2-3 inch fish at high numbers evolves much more risk than stocking with fewer larger fish. This is because you can't accurately quantify how many small fish will be eaten or starve and or reproduce in the first year+ . Every stocking has potential results that vary. These changes lead to consequences which we are not smart enough to consider before hand (called trophic cascades). Risk tolerance varies greatly from person to person and pond to pond. So do the costs and effort to fix the situation if it is unacceptable.


All of this leads to an it depends answer. I would not try that plan unless it was just a "gosh lets roll the dice and see what happens" situation. Way to much risk of bad results. It may turn out great but I doubt it unless the fish are on feed. However the more fertile the system the bigger the chance it will work in the short term. His best bet would be to go get 100 5 inch BG and add them to the mix with more FH. He has way to many next year predators vs possible next year forage. In addition there is high variability on what the spawning status is for the spring. A good chance exists of being at spawn 1 with an unbalanced population in either direction.

NEVER, EVER stock crappie in a pond that small. Most conservation departments would recommend not doing it in any BOW less than 40 acres.

Our 6.5 acre BOW was bucket stocked with crappie decades ago and it is always a lot of work trying to keep their numbers down. We keep every crappie we catch.....every one.

He should save himself/herself many headaches and not stock BCP. But definitely gift a PB subscription! BM61.

Production of RES will be low, I'm not familiar with CNBG but the low reproduction of RES "may" help the LMB target a more plentiful supply of yoy BCP. My experience in community waters with BCP has not been good, but we have found that Saugeye seem to prefer BCP as a forage base when available, walleye react in a similar fashion but not to the extent Saugeye do. I don't know..This may not be as bad as one may think. There may be a sad ending but it "may" hold it's own for awhile.
I strongly agree with BM61 here though..probably would be best without crappie.

I just went back and looked at LMB size stocked.. Using a 70% efficiency rate, 10,000 fatheads will feed those LMB for 23 days.
Considering nothing else was available to the bass and nothing else utilized the FHM.
That's a 70 deg water temp so probably add another 30 days this time of year. A WAG at best..

As the deed is done...maybe the correct question at this point is what can be done to mitigate potential problems. I like Ewest's suggestion of stocking some advanced sized BG.

I wonder if the water temp, hours of daylight, etc in a Louisiana pond this time of year are still sufficient that those FHM might be spawning, assuming appropriate spawning habitat is available.