I have two old ponds on the farm that I have had to drain and recore the dams. I am starting the renovations next month. Each pond is roughly 1 1/2 acre. The west pond has 20 or so cypress trees in it. It averages 4-1/2 feet deep and is full of 45 years of muck. My plan for this pond is to deepen it around the edges and remove as much muck as I can. The east pond is 6 feet deep and is a bowl. I want to deepen it and add some bottom contours.

I am looking for ideas for what to stock in these ponds. I already have two bass/ bream ponds one 4-1/2 and one 3/4 acre and a 1/2 acre catfish pond. So what I really want y'all to help me with is finding another stocking plan. What would y'all do? Go crazy!

How about several minnow species left to make babies for 2 years and then a few single sex crappie to gorge themselves?

Res, yp, smb

How about BG/HSB pond? The BG may overpopulate in Georgia...

Yp and Smb don't grow good down here.

How easy is it to sex crappie?

HBG/HSB/RES with FHM and GSH.

I can only sex crappie when they are in spawning colors or have eggs/milt.

How easy is it to sex crappie?

If you have a crappie lake nearby you can catch a bunch just before spawn and give them a new home.

I worry about them going downstream and causing issues.

You might be suprized how well SMB can tolerate the heat. Some have been doing well in TX.

YP,
Remarks: Although Yerger (1977) and Lee et al. (1980 et seq.) considered this species to be introduced into the Apalachicola River in Florida, it may actually be native. Because the Apalachicola drainage was not adequately sampled in early years, introduced status may be incorrectly assumed for some species. Yellow perch was first collected in the Mobile basin circa 1850, long before any stocking took place, indicating the species was native to this region. This record was overlooked by Lee et al. (1980 et seq.). Hence, Perca flavescens may be native to eastern Gulf drainages in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, not introduced. Populations in Atlantic coastal drainages of Georgia, such as the Altamaha and Savannah, have been reported (Dahlberg and Scott 1971b) to be introduced. In fact we believe these populations are more likely native

Source:
http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.aspx?speciesID=820

http://www.bigbendfishing.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=33860#p270315

Bobby' that's interesting but not near as unusual as what you are doing. I had to chuckle about the comment that was a "pretty good sized one". You should post a couple of pics of Cecils YP, they'de probably think they were some form of saltwater YP.

I think the SMB will grow in So.Georgia if you can maintain good clearer water quality with no stagnant water and no summer fish kill type conditions. Also consider HSB. The main feature to growing SMB is to keep ALL LMB out of the pond, then smallies can usually do okay if the pond is not hypereutrophic with regular bluegreen algae scumj forming blooms. If neither predators work out, you can always add LMB-BG and still have a quality fishery as the LMB-BG will usually eventually crowd out original stockers.

Your experiences will be learning experiences for all of us.

speckled sea trout or southern flounder might be cold tolerant enough in that area (S. GA), they tend to be the most cold toerant out of my salty friends. Red fish/drum can be more cold sensitive in fresh water but might be worth stocking a couple to find out.. this along with some HSB would be pretty unusual.

Bobby' that's interesting but not near as unusual as what you are doing. I had to chuckle about the comment that was a "pretty good sized one". You should post a couple of pics of Cecils YP, they'de probably think they were some form of saltwater YP.

Sorry bout the double post. Bill Cody thinks that I may be hittin the juice or eating tainted fish but that ain't so. I have this God given talent to be kinda dense.

If I could get yp and Smb would they grow faster in this climate?

not sure about faster,,... Longer growing season for sure, so possibly larger size in one year cycle , Why not

Bobby what do you think about adding a few bull sharks just for the fun of it? Would they survive the winter?

Does any one know where the closet sorce for yp and Smb would be for me?

You might have to have some shipped to you.,
But if you could get them started, I think that would be pretty cool. I always wanted to see if I could get a few.

Can you get sterile crappie? that sounds ideal. I have heard of other species commercially available as sterile

So six months later something is finally happening. What I failed to say earlier is that my county road department was going to be the ones to dig the pond out. Well after lots of stroys about being there next week they finally showed up. The first pond is just over 1-1/2 acre. And where the excavator sits it is 3-1/2' deep at full pool. They are taking out 8' of dirt as far as the excavator can reach.and will be going 700 linear feet along the bank. I am so excited that I can hardly stand it. Here's a pic. I will keep everyone updated.

Ok. So the county road department got through, and left the pond in a mess but they did move a lot of dirt out. So we started last week cleaning and shaping. Here is a video of the progress so far. YouTube changed the quality so the pic is a little off but you can get the jist. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CvTMtobuTmI

Very cool Cray. I really enjoyed the inputs from your co-commentator!

Yeah me to my wife left him in my hand while she did some girl stuff. So we went to the farm, caught some fish and got dirty.

Alright, so after you looked at my video of pond. Does anyone have any suggestions on ways to make it better. I WANT TO DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME! So please share your observations. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CvTMtobuTmI

First, I agree about your right hand man and his help. Great Kid and that's what it's all about.

It looks to be about 4 to 5 ft deep with the exception of the deeper holes. Is that right?

That's correct. About 60% of the pond is under 6 ' deep.

Would Threadfin survive in a Southern Georgia pond?

TFS/RES/YP/SMB would be pretty much ideal right? I would add some FHM and maybe GSH but from what I have read if the TFS will survive the winter they would be a perfect forage for smallmouth. Am I wrong?

In my non-profesional personal opinion

For SMB version of stocking

(wich would be awesome to try in a southern pond)
(I also think it has a good chance of working)


I think more depth would help.

Maybe a larger section/hole or deep end of some sort. If that is in the option for you at this point.

Rockville, I believe TFS do fine in that area of GA.

I agree with Bobby. However, sooner or later, it gets damn cold everywhere. Then you have to restock the TFS.

Bobby, AaronM successfully stocked smallies in Scottsdale, AZ. He even got some to cross and had Mean Mouth Bass. Bob Lusk did a magazine piece about the unique oasis in the desert!

That is why I would also stock GSH so in the event of a TFS die-off his SMB won't starve waiting for the next stocking of TFS. I really wish Threadfins would survive Virginia winters, they are the perfect SMB forage!

we are assuming he is going to stock SMB, He really was asking for Ideas on the pond. I think if Clint can get some more deep water that would help with any fish he ends up stocking.

He is located more south in GA than north so I think TFS will not have a die out especially if they have some deep water to get in when and if it gets too cold for them.

Rockville, You do bring up a good point, In the odd event the TFS would have a cold Kill having shiners would help.

However GSH might be a little large for SMB if that is what is stocked, Perhaps a smaller species of shiner might be best in this case, albeit they probably will not be as easy to source.

Cray,
We have both SMB and TFS in out 350 acre irrigation reservoir here on Oahu, HI. The TFS provide great forage for the LMB and peacock bass all over the lake. The SMB are mainly prevalent way up the main contributory that has rock beds and faster flowing cool water from the nearby mountains. But we just don't have the intense heat that south GA does.

THE STRUCTURE IS IN!! Well most of it. I have a few rock piles to go, but I will get them in this week. Here are a few pics. Also I am posting some pics of the next pond on the list for reworking.

Looks like you have been pouring the mess out of some concrete mix. Looks good though. What depth will those smaller bucket structures be located?

looks awesome! Looks like enough water to go ahead and add some FHM......

It has kept a few high school boy busy for the past week. The small buckets will be in about 5 feet of water.

And yes after I got the water siphoning out of the other pond I added some fat heads.

The fish stocking has been coming along. The few bg I put in pulled off a spawn or two before it cooled off. I see thousands of 1-5 inch bg when I feed.

A few weeks ago I got some smb, some grass shrimp and yp.

This weekend bobby came, helped me collect some sailfin mollies and mullet from the estuaries for additional forage.

I can say for sure that I have the only pond in the county with smb and yp.


Thanks bobby for all your help this weekend! "

Clint sure has a nice place, the Pecan orchards are beautiful and the ponds are awesome. The new pond is coming along nicely and once topped off will be a real neat pond with lots of built in contours and placed structure. He was found some real neat predators for that pond and it should make for something different than the norm in his part of the world.We got some sail fin mollies added as they reproduce nicely in ponds. Of coarse I had to add my two cents and suggest he keep adding minnows and crayfish to assure he has a bumper crop of babies this spring. He has access to lots of native crayfish and a few varieties of minnows locally. What good is a pond visit if you cant give a suggestion or two...LOL. we fed the bass around the main (older) pond with that's always fun.

Now, His Bass and BG grow out is something amazing. he feed trains his own bass and grows them out on auqmax at an astonishing rate. He showed me some BG that almost made me faint, I have never seen a nearly 13" BG that seemed to be 3-4 inches wide across its back ....Just amazing.

Sorry , No pictures