Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Probably too early to ask but im excited...

The construction of my pond starts today and when finished it will be 3/4 to 1 acre in size. Im trying to decide on type of LMB to stock. Im in souther Louisiana and I would like the size of Florida bass, we have them in our lake at the deer camp. I also like the tenacity of a regular LMB. We dont catch many FLMBs at the camp unless we put a bream on a hook under a cork, we catch whoppers that way. Casting doesnt produce that well. I dont think a pond the size of minew will produce giant FLMB so Im kinda leaning toward F1 or regular LMB. Possibly F1 and a few Pure FLoridas. I would like to be able to go out and cast for an hour and catch a few rather than only catch 1 or 2 a week. Is there a problem with putting a mixture fo strains of bass in my pond. In a pond the size of mine can I expect F1 to approach 10lbs because 7-10 lbs would be amazing. We are catching 8lb fish at our camp but they are pure florida bass in a 4 acre lake.
Give me some bass stocking options. Im also going to put HBG and CC and FHM

I read this on MS farm pond forum...

Either northern largemouth bass or
Florida largemouth bass are appropriate
for stocking in Mississippi farm ponds,
but it is best not to mix the two.
We do not recommend hybrid largemouth
bass, also known as tiger bass,
gorilla bass, and “F1 hybrids” because
although the original stocked fish may
experience enhanced growth, the offspring
of the original stocking may be poor.
It does not matter whether you stock
regular bluegill or coppernose bluegill.

I suppose if you use a 50/50 mix of northern and Florida, that could be the case, but in most cases the bass tend to overpopulate. If you want higher fecundity in the bass (hard to imagine), use fewer Floridas. I used a 10:1 ratio northern to Florida, just to have the possibility of an occasional bonus hog. I went with bare minimum stocking numbers, so overpopulation shouldn't be a problem, short term. I'll have results in about a year, and if I have too many bass I'll simply fish them out.

I think you'll get plenty more info and opinons on this real soon!

That particular advice from the MS forum is simplistic and based on some untested assumptions. See this thread.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=140993&fpart=1

I have used different mixes without problem for years. Use northerns and F-1s and get a few 10-20% total of small Flas. from the hunting club in the same size to hedge your bet.

Howdy, tz. Welcome to the forum.

If you are trying to grow larger bass, HBG would not be advised. They spawn much less than normal BG and therefore provide much less forage for bass to eat.

Think Coppernose Bluegill instead.

I like that advice

First off, welcome to Pond Boss TZ, we're glad you found us.



Just an observation from an amature. A pond can only hold so many fish. I don't know how many large (7 to 10 pound LMB) a 3/4 to 1 acre lake can support but I don't think it will be a lot of them. (The experts can address this much better than I, and there are many variables as to amount of fish any given pond can support). So if you had let's say 10 LMB that were in the 7 to 10 pound range you would be catching that same 10 bass over and over. So there becomes sort of a trade off between having trophy sized bass (which IMHO a 7 to 10 pound LMB qualifies, but then again I get all excited over a 4 pound LMB) and having a higher catch rate of LMB. Does that make any sense? We have bantered this about in another thread (trophy fishery versus higher catch rate fishery) but I can't find the thread right at this moment.

Definitely a good idea to shy away from the HBG and stick with pure strain CNBG. CNBG will do great in your part of the country, so I would definitely stock them, but you can consider mixing some regular of northern strain BG with them...

As soon as your pond gets water in it, start building the food chain! It seems to me that you are more interested in growing some nice LMB over BG so I would strongly recommend you stock FHM and GSH shortly after you get water in your pond. Allow them to breed and fill your pond up with bass food. You can also consider stocking papershell or another species of crayfish to your pond as well. Build your LMB from the forage up!

The AVERAGE balanced/managed pond can support 100 pounds of predators. That's why LMB are a problem in smaller ponds.

Is that a total of 100# or 100# per acre

per acre. Of course this varies with the intensity of management. If you work at it and all of the stars align you can push the envelope. Most do.

i like the idea of having nice lmb for sport but also would like to be able to take cnbg or hbg for eating

Ah, therein lies the rub. Your larger/eating sized BG are your herd bulls and spawners. If you want some to eat, don't name them.

I am not a fan of HBG. There is no real indication that they outgrow a BG or CNBG. And, they lightly spawn. The bottom line is that they take and don't give to the predator/prey balance.

Of course, it is about the only way to raise some beautiful Green Sunfish.

my pond is underway and completion date is a week or so away. Then comes praying for rain to fill it. Im thinking of 1000 FHM 200 CC 1000 cnbg as soon as it fills. Maybe even get the FHM in as soon as it gets some h2o staying in it. What do yall think of that stocking? Thanks for all the info this is a great site

I think it's light on fatheads (go 10 pounds) and heavy on CC (keep it under a hundred).

I agree. I'd go 2000 FHM and 50 CC for one acre.

Hey tz. Great to see another cajun on board. Just got my pond on board last year about the same size as yours. Don't know much, but I can give my results and 2cents. I've had experience with both hbg and cnbg. Get the cnbg. They grow big and fast and produce lots of forage. My experience with lots of pellets.