Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain New to the Pond Boss Forum...and New to ponds

Hey all, Newbie here! I will introduce my self first. My name is Ryan and am from Ontario, Canada. (Southern...between Toronto and London)

I have been reading ALOT on the forum in the past 2 months as we are/were trying to aquire a new property that has a 3 year old pond on it. We just officialy got word that it was ours after selling our current house (in's and out's of real estate sucks sometimes but turned out great in the end for us) we take possesion of this property on the Labour Day weekend.

Anyway, the pond is located in Southern Ontario. It is located in the middle of a 14acre Hard Maple bush. The pond is 3 years old and is aprox 325feet long and 50-75 feet wide and is in the shape of a peanut. It is maily fed by springs and the only water flow into the pond is by a beaver pond located on the top of the property aprox 400 feet to the north. It drains to the the lower swampy bush area and into the road ditch if needed.

The pond is 20 feet deep on either end (larger area's) with a depth in the center area of the pond of 10 feet. When it was built the pond builder said it should only take 2 days to dig. Landed up taking 2 weeks as there where so many springs they had to do it in 3 sections. Dug each end down to 20 feet leaving the center section and the once dug out he was able to open it all up. On the side of the ends it drops of real fast and is rock lined down about 3 feet. There was very little weed growth further down when I was looking at it this week. In the center section on the north side there is a flat table top section that is aprox 2-3 feet deep and would work great as a spawning bed but is currently just clay/dirt lined.

The pond was stocked the first fall with 100 Rainbow Trout in the 8-12" length. I did see a few swiming close to shore back in early may but didn't see any this week when I was there but he says he seems them just before dark. 2 years ago he also stocked 25 Largemouth Bass and I was seeing quite a few on my walk around the other day. Nothing else has been stocked and I only saw a few minnows durring my walk around. He said that his Grandson has only ever cought a few trout and usually a bass every now and then and everything has been released.

I have fished all my life and having family in Ohio with similar sized ponds stocked with LMB and BG I am aming towards those species but am open for opinions. I am not really into trout but fish alot for SMB and Walleyes in the many lakes here in Ontario as well as YP and BG in Lake Erie every fall.

I am thinking I would like a fresh start but not wanting to "kill" the pond off if thats even possibly on my own. My thoughts are to have a fishing day in September and a fish fry with our family and friends and take out as many as possible.

I have looked around here in Ontario and have found out that no hatcheries stocks BG up here which I am really aming for if possible. I have heard of others here "finding there own stock" which is possible for me as I know a good spot. LMB,SMB ,Walleye, YP and black Crappie are popular and are easy to find at the hatcheries.

Although I havn't taken surface temp yet I have "stuck my feet in the water" and even now in July its a little cold yet for my taste so I don't think its over 70 yet.

So I am just asking for some thoughts or advice on what to do and where to start. My thoughts are to find some BG if I go that route and let them on there own for at least a year and then get some LMB back in. I really do like SMB though and would prefer them over LMB but they probably won't control the BG.

Here are some pictures of the pond taken the other day. The water is fairly clear and you can see aprox 3 feet down or a little more.

These are the pics with some explanation

The View from the top to the bottom end

another shot from the top end

middle of pond and 3foot table top area

2nd shot of middle

View from bottom end of pond

bottom of pond where it drains out to the bush/sampy area



Thanks in advance....RyanB

Welcome to the Forum, Ryan. Your part of Southern Ontario is really, really nice. London - Go Mustangs!

I seriously doubt you would be able to fish all the LMB out of the pond, but in a BOW under an acre, you should be able to keep them under control. I would avoid Crappie, and if you have read the Crappie threads here, you will understand why.

If you put YP and SMB in the pond, you can always add BG later and let it become a LMB/BG pond as the BG and LMB crowd out the YP and SMB (I believe this would still be expected as far North as the Canadian land between the lakes). Continual LMB removal would probably be required to maintain longterm YP/SMB presence.

Your climate and expected management situation should be similar to NY state, Michigan, and Northern Ohio/Indiana, so let's see what PMs from those areas think. Fish and observe the pond as much as possible to see what all is in it and in what sizes. Advanced size stockers for any new species will probably be needed with mature LMB present.

BTW, beauty pond, clerk.

Welcome!

That pond is beautiful.

Beautiful place

Thanks for the info! I am still new to all the lingo here on Pond Boss. Is there an area where I can figure out what all the short forms mean...you mentioned BOW??? also I would like to know some of the other fish short forms people are using.

I was doing a bit more research today on a couple sites here in Ontario and was doing some reading on Walleye stocking in ponds. I know most of our small lakes and rivers up here have both Walleye and SMB feeding on YP. Does anyone think I could make a go of this mix for stocking. The pond seems pretty cool and nice and deep for the walleye's.

Thanks again...Ryan

BOW - Body of Water

See the Archive Acronym thread for other abbreviations; if you notice any in use that aren't in there, just let me know.

P.S. I am contemplating YP/SMB/WE for a future pond myself. It should be even more viable in your location.

Dr. Dave from another thread on WE:

Hey Ryan, hope you have a sense of humor. It's almost necessary around here.

Welcome to PB. You have a lot of options in your pond without killing off the existing fish. You should be near the northern end of the LMB viability range. Great area for SMB , YP and BG as well as eyes in addition to trout.

Lake Opinicon is an 890-hectare, mesotrophic, warm-water

lake in Leeds County, Ontario, Canada (Keast 1978). The lake

sustains a large natural population of bluegill whose reproductive

biology has been studied since the mid-1970s. These BG may be the most studied BG in the world (Neff Studies).

The presence of LMB in your pond make YP and SMB difficult to thrive but not impossible. If you try YP and SMB remove every LMB you catch that is longer than 11"-12". The difficult part of this fishery will be keeping enough forage fish to maintain good growth of all species present. The LMB as long a they are present will want to be the dominate and most abundant or prevalent fish. LMB and BG may be the best plan for this pond as it now exists. Rice Lake east of you has lots of BG. Pumpkin seed sunfish would also be a good panfish with the LMB an BG.

thanks guys...this is why I am hear! to learn and get everyones views on what may or may not work... Both those lakes mentioned above are a good 3-4 hours east of me.

If I were to just do the BG/LMB route how would I start. What kind of #'s are going to be needed and at what times. Also, more than likley there would be Pumpkin seeds brought in also.

I still love the idea of a YP pond with SMB but we will see what happens.

Ryan

Hey Ryan...
That's the prettiest lookin' peanut I've ever seen. Very nice. If I can divert from the fish subject, I wanna ask about the step structure. Is it stairsteps? Do they continue below the water surface?

Brettski- Yeah its stair steps but currently come down to just the water level. I keep forgetting to ask him why only to the water level. I am guessing though from what he has mentioned was that he intended the water level a good 2 feet higher than it currently is. The first time I saw the pond he had said that once he got finished with the rock edging (there is aprox 100 feet on the one edge that isn't full built up to the hight of the rest) that he wanted to build up the exit height to achieve the new depth. That would make the steps go down half way in the water and also bring the water up higher to the dock...looks dumb right now sticking almost 4 feet out of the water. Once I get the place I am wanting to lay the rest of that rock and raise the level up for next spring. I also want to lay a bunch gravel for spawning beds on the table top section and also put a few tons down infront of the infeed area to the pond. We are going to build a nice water fall in that area for added areation and also able to let the water flow throw the falls from the upstream beaver pond over flow. I will then move the current fountain down in the larger area in the bottom section.

Ryan

Hey Guys. I thought I would give an update. We moved into the new place on Labour Day weekend and I find my self not being able to stay away from the pond! The first thing I did before moving anything into the house was cast a line. I unfortunatly didn't catch anything that day but my dad landed 3 nice 3lbs+ LMB and one SMB about the same size as the large mouth with the nicest bronze colour I have ever seen on a smallie! Since then I have landed about 5 LMB and another smallie. Since there we no visable markings on any of these fish I have started removed each lower right fin from all the fish I catch (the ministry of Natural resorces does the same with there stocked fish so I figured it wouldn't hurt) I think its going to give me the aprox # in the pond. I have seen quite a few little bass 3-6" long and have cought many baby LMB minnows while removing algea with the dip net.

Fall is comming here soon in the north and I am really wanting to start stocking fish. I have decieded after seeing the nice LMB (really fat for there length and super healthy) that I think BG are the way to go.

I did the math and figure the pond is right at 1/3 of an acre (surface) and it is anywhere from 10-20 feet deep. It also is a clay bottom (thinking about building structur and areas of gravel/rock for spawning beds.

What kind of numbers of BG should I be looking to stock in the pond?


The pond was stocked with 100 Rainbow when it was dug 4 years ago but I have yet to see one and the previous owner said he hasn't seen one in 2 years but never had any float up or have winter kill...he said there was a heron around though quite often!!! He also said he stocked mud minows but I havn't seen any yet. Should I be stocking some of those for forage for the BG???

I have also been looking into different areation and am going to be going with 3 sets of difusers and will have them going all winter to keep the water open. I should have them setup by next week if all goes well.

Thanks in advance...Ryan

Really nice looking pond Ryan B, it sounds like your really getting the things you need to keep your pond in good shape.
I made the mistake of not having aeration for my pond, and the trout didn't make it thru their first winter. Of 100 rainbow, and brook trout I only found the remains of 1 this spring.
This year I have aeration, and will aerate shallow to keep an area open.
The experts on this forum will give you great advice, so pick their brains, and enjoy your pond. Good luck

If you can get adult BG (6" +), a couple dozen should get a population started. LMB prefer to eat BG 1/3 to 1/4 their own body length, so keep that in mind wrt your bass sizes for getting BG that the LMB won't likely eat.

I wonder what the LMB and SMB are eating now if you think that they are healthy.

The guy I bought the place said he had stocked mud minnows in the pond and I am wondering if they are feeding on those or whats left (I have yet to catch any in the dip net) and the baby bass.

that pond is too pretty for me to make any constructive comments....and a belated welcome to PB.

Yep, you're a Pond Meister.