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Joined: Feb 2017
Posts: 400
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Joined: Feb 2017
Posts: 400
I thought I would share my story to help others. My pond has been in the family for many decades. My uncle used it as a stock tank for cattle from sometime in the 50's/60's until he got out of the cattle business in the 90's. Before he owned it, there was a cotton gin here and it was a gin tank. I don't know exactly how old it is, but it's been here a long time.


Over the years I fished it some and never caught anything. I ASSUMED it didn't have any fish in it. We moved out here in around 2001/2002. I fished it a few times and again I didn't catch anything. I moved to the city a few years ago and was away for a few years before moving back last year. Fast forward to February of 2017. I decided to stock it as though it were a new tank. BIG MISTAKE. As matter of fact, a few days prior to stocking, I fished it without nary a bite.

In February 2017, I decided to go forward with stocking and I put 200 Coppernose Bluegill that was 1-3 inches long. I put 100 Redear Sunfish 2-4" long, 100 Channel Cat 6-8" long, 5 pounds FHM. Plus I bought a sack of fish food. We brought them home and proudly put them in the pond. The cost was around 330.00 dollars. I'm not sure of the exact amount, but that's real close.

The pond came to life! There was movement and ripples everywhere. I waited a few days to let them acclimate before starting to feed. At first, I only put out a handful, but noticed they were eating. In a few days I was up to 2 cups. As a family, we were excited! We had fish and they were eating. This went on for a month. I did notice we weren't seeing any minnows, but didn't think much about it.

My wife made the comment that the fish looked fat as "mud balls" and were looking great. My vision is poor, so I asked her how big they were. She told me they looked at least twice the size as we stocked last month. Being ignorant about fish growth, I asked here on the forum if my fish could have grown that quick and everyone said no. I still had no clue something was a miss and figured being underwater was making them appear larger. We increased our feeding as the days passed until we were feeding 3 times a day and 2 cups at each meal. Fish were eating great and were waiting on us every time we would walk up to feed.

Along around day 40 June Bugs started showing up and we started throwing them in the pond and the fish would hit them hard. I scratched my head, but figured the Catfish had finally showed up to eat. My wife also made the comment she saw several fish with big mouths and so I just "knew" my Catfish had finally showed up to the feed trough.

My wife got her camera and started snapping pictures which I shared here and here's where everything came unwound. We weren't seeing and feeding the fish we stocked. We had Green Sunfish! Not only did we have GSF, there were huge! I caught a couple and the guys here gave us the verdict. Yep, we have Green Sunfish. A day later, I caught 41 as fast as I could bait my hook. Several of them were 9 inches long. Disappointed at first because I really wanted those Coppernose Bluegill. I decided to look on the bright side. I had fish, they were eating, and we were having fun feeding them.

So why am I telling this long story?

I hope to save someone from making the same mistake I made. NEVER assume your pond is empty. The easy part is putting the fish in, but if your pond has fish in it, you could be wasting your money. See, if I had known there were fish already established, I could have managed things differently. The money I spent on those fish was really wasted because they were most likely eaten up within a couple of weeks, if not sooner.

Looking back now, If I would have thought things through a little better, I could have saved a few dollars and a few headaches.

Only time will tell how my pond turns out, but you can learn from my mistakes and do yours right.

In hindsight, I would have observed and watched the pond for a few months before stocking. I might have even bought a sack of feed and fed for a few days to see what showed up.


Good luck on your pond. I hope this story saves someone a little trouble.




Last edited by farmallsc; 04/02/17 03:42 AM.


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My personal story. Feeding in an older pond that had never been fed may or may not have told you much. Fish seem, in my experience, to learn about feed from hatchery fed fish that are feed trained. I have a small 1/4 to 1/3 acre(depending on rain) pond that was there when I bought the place a LONG time ago. At that time I didn't know anything about fish feed and only thought that I knew something about fish. I'm still learning.I just knew that there were some sunfish of some kind in it and, at that time, didn't know anything about the different varieties of sunfish. A guy at a feed store told me about fish food. I bought some and tried it with no results. So, I tossed some in my creek; again with no results. I could see and catch the fish in the creek but they ignored the Purina. Then I bought some small BG and FHM from a fish truck and everything changed. Bigger fish that I hadn't stocked started eating the feed. During a BIG rain, the pond overflowed into the creek along with a lot of pond raised fish. The same thing happened when I tossed feed into the creek.

However, I do agree that fishing might have told you the story. Or, at least, told you that it wasn't barren.


It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP

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