Okay fellow pondmeisters. (I'm not really one yet but I am working on it.) Here is my question. Is it necessary to stock a new pond with forage fish, FHM and GSH, before or with BG and RES. I have been advised both ways. I would be very interested in hearing other view points on this topic. Thanks.

John

I would say it depends on the goals for the pond. If big bream are at the foremost, I would not stock GSH at all and would think about not using FHM (I have this crazy experiment ongoing using Gambusia for bream forage). If bass growth is equally or more important, I would stock start-up forage to provide kots of bass meals early on, before fingerling BG/RES are big enough to spawn.

Even if breeding sized BG/RES are stocked in a bass pond, FHM & GSH probably help fill the pond up with easy to eat biomass quicker than bream alone.