I have a pond in my backyard that was dry 10 months ago but now has over 12 feet of water in the middle. The bottom was solid grass and a large number of small trees are submergered now. I want to create a Bass pond and to do it right.

How should I start? It is spawning season now and I could easily catch a large number of females that are full of eggs in other surrounding lakes. But I get the feeling that I need to create a food supply first. Although there must be ample bugs and worms in my pond since it was a grassy hole not long ago.

I see something spotting the water now, but I'm not sure if it is small fish or air bubbles.

If you can help I would greatly appreciate it. Like I said I access to near by lakes full of Brim, Bass, Catfish ......

Thank you in advance for any suggestions you can provide me.

Terry Beecher

Ps. Will the State of Florida Wildlife Assoc. help me???

Terry, couple of questions, was the pond dry 10 months ago because you just built it or another reason, what size is the pond.

This is the time of year you stock your forage fish(bream and fatheads)and soon! Next spring stock bass. Lots of reasons not to stock fish from other bodies of waters.

You can get alot of info from this site but my suggestion is order Pond Boss Magazine, Buy their books and hire a pond professional to help.

Have fun and good luck!

If you know your pond is going to keep it's water level stock your bearing food chain let that develop for two years and then stock your game fish ,check your water chemistry by a pond proffesional and breeding habitat before you start the money spent now will return in the future
As for advise Pond Boss is the site to ask for advise if there is doubt you will find the solution to the problem here.

Wood D. Chuck

Thanks for the responses. My pond is approximately 1 acre and it was dry 10 months ago because of the drought Florida went thru.

After much research I have decided to pass on adding Bass at this time. I have gone to the lake across the street and with a large minnow net. I have netted a large number of minnows and a dozen or so Brim/Bluegills. I plan on adding to my pond every other week for a 8 week period. Then give it the winter (if you want to call what we get in Florida a winter) to stabilize itself.

Next spring I will begin adding some Bass and monitor how they do.

If you agree with this approach let me know.

Thanks,

Terry

Beech5- What is the water supply for the pond? Springs? Well? Runoff? If not supplied by a well what is to stop it from being a dry hole again is there is another drought, or at very least losing alot of depth in another dry spell?

Really is something to put serious thought into before putting effort or money into any stocking program.

As far as transplanting minnows, have you identified what types of minnows you are getting to make sure they are all desireable? (Likely not an issue if they are minnows and not fingerlings/juvenile game fish)

Pottsy-The pond is supplied by run-off. The drought Florida went through over the past 7 years is not likely to occur again for many years. in fact experts predict that we are due for a rainy period and possibly a tropical storm in the next few years.

The minnows are from the lake directly across the street so I don't see why that should be a concern. In reality the lake and pond were probably one and the same a hundred years ago.

As far as cost goes, this is my hobby and I could care less. Iam having a fountain installed in the middle of the pond by Thanksgiving to ensure proper oxygen (and it should look nice).

Do you agree with adding the minnows and Bluegills now and Bass next Spring? I want to make sure I'm not putting the cart in front of the horse.

Thanks

Beech5

Terry, If this was my hobby and I didn't care what it cost, I would go for hatchery fish. That way I would know that I wasn't introducing any small trash fish or any diseases. To do it right would probably cost an estimated $500 for good stockers. That is less than rotenoning to get rid of problems and start over. Before I did anything I would test PH and alkilinity of the water. While this stuff ain't rocket science, it is pretty easy to make stupid mistakes. I've got a Ph.D inscrewing up because of taking shortcuts.

Like Dave mentioned - Care should be taken with adding non-hatchery bluegill to avoid introducing green sunfish or other undesireables. Minnows on the other hand if identifiable I would start moving into the pond ASAP to get a good head-start. Then worry about the predator fish (Bass) at a later date.

Dave and Pottsy, I like the idea of getting fish from a hatchery, do you have any suggestions on one I could use in Central Florida? Also how many and what type of fish would you suggest if you were going to do this? Remember, my ultimate goal is to have a nice bass pond when I'm finished.

I had no idea that you needed to be so careful about adding fish from another lake. Because of my inexperience, I just figured if the looked healthy they would be fine.

I appreciate your input.

Terry

Most likely they would be disease free but the penalties of being wrong could force you to start over. Call your State Fisheries people. They can tell you who to contact. Ask the State guys what their stocking recommendations are for your personal situation. The Pond Boss pro's recommend about 800 bluegill or coppernose and 200 shellcrackers or those approximate combinations along with about 5 lbs. of fathead minnows per acre. Leave them alone for a year and come back with 50 bass. A lot of State Biologists say you can start out stocking with half that many bluegills, etc. Who's right? Who knows? Before I stocked any forage fish, I would check my PH and alkilinity to find out whether I needed lime. Build a sechi disk to look at your water clarity which is an indicator of phytoplankton (or maybe mud) availability. All of this is discussed in Bob Lusk's book "Raising Trophy Bass". I'd buy it. You can get a lot of info by going over the posts here. Have fun. It's just money.