I have placed an order with Overtons for my adult sized Tp along with a thousand 2 to 3" cnbg. And some ladder stocking of 10 or 12 14" hsb to add to the pond. Scheduled for April 25th delivery. So, I am thinking I will add half of the cnbg to the pond with plans to add them behind netting to get acclimated to the pond. Plans are to keep them behind the netting for an hour of so. The remaining cnbg are to be added to a cage that I am building now. Cage measurements are 3x3x6. Any one have any idea on how many I can put in this size cage? To grow them out to lets say 5" and then release to the pond. The purpose is to increase the numbers of 5 to 6" cnbg for lmb forage.

Last year we stocked some larger sized hsb and lost 40% of those fish. I think the water was just to warm for those stressed fish. Overton's fisheries is replacing those lost fish. Just another reason why we stay with them as our fish supplier.

Great minds I guess. I'm building a 3X4X5 cage myself. I kept thinking about the cage Scott69 posted with all the small BG that ate until they couldn't escape. I like that idea for keeping smaller CNBG handy for LMB treats.

Tracy,
3x3x6 foot cage has about 404 gallons of water. That said, if the cage is put in a area with good flow, then I would be happy putting 200-300 2-3 inch CNBG in that cage. I would try to make the cage bigger like 4x4x6 simple to have more room and less corner area ratio. At 4x4x6 you would now have 718 gallons of water and nearly the same corner area.

Let us know how it goes. Side note, T5 is nearly finished! Stop on by one of these days.

Thanks for the invite Brian. Can I bring the boat lol. Need to find a new fishing technique. And I would like to see T5. The reason I went with the smaller sized cage is due to the size of the plastic screen I purchased, it is 3' wide and I did not want to mend two rolls together, I was afraid what it might look like when I was done. I have considered making a round cage using rolled tubbing. I have some time before delivery date so I might find a way of building it for the remaining 2 or 300 cnbg to grow out in.

And Al, you may have a great mind but me, not so much anymore My reason for the cage is because both times I had Overton's do a survey I seemed to be short on numbers of 2 to 3" cnbg and now as I watch the feeders go off I don't see the 6" cnbg I used to see. Lots of others but not so many in that size range.

What do you guys think when we add fish to an existing pond? If a pond will naturally fill with numbers after two years, do I need to remove some fish to make room for the newly to be added Tp and CNBG?

A thousand 2"-3" CNBG will only weigh about 10 lbs so I don't think you need to be concerned.

That's good to know. My pond gets some pressure from Mother Nature that seems to remove or thin out the population of different fish in the pond. I had to run off a dozen Cormorants yesterday. I hate those darn birds!

due to my fish kill, i bought 200 and put in my cage. several of them died, maybe 30 or so. i think their death was unrelated to my fish kill. according to the autopsy my pond fish died of an opportunist bacterial infection. likely due to overfeeding/overcrowding. the fish that i bought to put in the cage had some type of fungal infection. there were large white masses growing on their upper body mainly near the dorsal fin. the surviving ones are growing really fast. i hope to grow these out large enough to escape the bass. i may buy another 200 as soon as these are released. it looks like survival of my adults was almost zero. i may keep adding until i see good activity at my feeder.

Scott, what was/is the size of your cage? I would think the fungal infection was due to stress, but I am no expert when it comes to things like that. But I have seen similar on Tp when the water cools down. You said you are seeing good growth so how often are you feeding and about how much?