Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose help making a trophy bass pond.

hello yall, I am stocking a one acre pond with bluegill largemouth bass and channel cat. I am wondering if I should stock larger fish to jump start the pond. my goal is to have good size fish as soon as possible. how should I go about doing this. pond is approx. an acre.

The fastest path to a pond full of large fish is to stock large fish. OK, I'm being a smart-aleck...

Usually that is not affordable so you stock the largest pellet trained fish you can afford and make sure that you don't' stock fish that are big enough to eat any of the other stocked fish. Then feed them a good quality food.

Something else that helps is to establish a lot of forage in the pond well before you stock it with game fish. A pond full of FHM's, crawdads, frogs, etc. will really help grow fish fast with or without pellets.

That's the basics!

thank you! what about stocking fathead minnows?

If you truly want a trophy bass pond, eliminate the channel cats. They compete for the same food resources as the bass.

Also are you moving/transplanting large fish or buying large fish?

probably moving fish from another bigger pond on the property.

FHM's Equals Fat Head Minnows. See our common acronyms page for help with the lingo...

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92442#Post92442

And, Yes, FHM's are a very popular starter forage. I put about 1000 of them in April, 2017, stocked HBG, HSB, and RES this last April and the original 1000 FHM's made ba-gillions of babies, literally! Make sure you give them some pallets for spawning purposes.

I'd recommend feeding as quickest way to grow nice fish. If your circumstances allow, hand feeding is a blast. If not, you could buy an automatic feeder. Be sure to use high protein feed, and be consistent so the fish train quickly.