Trouble deciding fish - 08/20/19 05:34 PM
Hey guys first post here on the forum and I need y’all to set me straight. Let me start with my end goals in mind. I would love to have my own pond simply for recreation and my own little slice of conservation of our precious wildlife. I Currently have a 1/4 acre 4-5’ deep pond on a property near my home which I have managed for several years with mostly success. It is your typical LMB, BG, and CC pond. However this property is now for sale and I expect to be pondless in the next year or so. For the past few months I have been looking at my home property every which way to see where I can squeeze in a pond, and I think I have found the location. If all goes well and I don’t have too much trouble with rock and soil I am looking at potentially 1.5 acres with a max depth rough guesstimate of 10-15’ possibly more. With the first smaller pond under my belt I’d like to try something different fish wise this go around. Personally I would love nothing more than a trout and walleye pond. After much research I realized unless I have my own private cold water spring and/or boat loads of money that ain’t happening in Tennessee. At first I had hopes that if I got it deep enough and aerated from the bottom I could make it work, but at this point I have just about accepted that I should let it go. So now to more realistic choices for my given location. what about Redfin pickerel and grass pickerel as predators for my pond? They can be found all across the southeast so I think they would do well. The big issue with them is basically nobody raises them so I’d have to catch wild specimens to introduce to my pond. I’m not real fond of using wild caught fish but if it’s bout the best way then I will at least entertain the idea. I don’t mind that they don’t get huge and actually that might be better for my smaller pond. I probably won’t put any large mouth in because if one gets to be 4-6 lbs it could start preying on my pickerel which I don’t want. The pickerel should spawn if I include weedy shallow areas as that is where they spawn naturally. They are noted as being veracious predators and I’d imagine they could control the population of small BG pretty well and maybe even BC. Basically I’d replace the bass with the pickerel and maybe the BG with BC. I’d like to have BC instead of BG but I’d rather not overload and stunt my pond with BC in the event my pickerel can’t eat em fast enough. Will probably throw in a few catfish just because. Will also let minnows propagate for a year or so prior to introducing any predators. Does anyone have experience with pickerel in my general area? Any big points I’m missing? food chain? Spawning? Habitat? Would it be easier and cheaper to stick to the proven bass bluegill formula? Yep. Will that deter me? Nope. If anyone has any other lesser kept game fish recommendations I’m all ears.