Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose New Pond - Need Help

Hi Guys,

I'm new to the board, very informative site!. I have dug a new pond in the St Catharines Area (Ontario, Canada), the pond is a peanut shape (about 100 feet long, and 30 feet wide), and is 12 feet deep at one end and about 7 feet at the other. the pond was filled from a well and the soil there is clay. I will be hooking up an arater windmill. My question is, will my pond be suitable for rainbow trout, walleye, or am i better off just to stick with Bass. Also are minnows a better feeder fish, then say sunfish? Thanks in advance.

Firstly you should decide on a realistic goal of what you want the fishery of your pond to be. Since the pond is quite small 30x100=3000sqft=0.6 acre, unless you feed the fish high protein pellets the total amount of fish raised will be quite small.

I looked on the map and you have similar climate as Buffalo NY. Trout will only be a long term option if you feed well water into the pond esp. during mid-summer when surface water gets above 70F. You could probably get trout to live with some luck for one to three yrs. depending on the summer heat for the next few years. After tthat your pond will become too productive and oxygen will be consumed too quickly in the deep water which will force the trout out of the cooler deep water and into the upper warmer "killing" water above. If you are a real "trout fan" try trout until they naturally die off; then stock with replacement fish of a different species. Note if you try trout do not run a botttom diffuser aerator (windmill)until the trout are dead & gone or only run it in spring, fall, and winter; not summer.

You can raise about as many lbs of walleye per acre as bass in your pond. If you feed them fish food (trout chow), you can easily double or triple the amount of fish raised in your pond. For beginners, the fish will have to be purchased that already eat fish food. However the walleye will not repopulate themselves; bass will. Walleye will be a put and take fish.

Option 1. - try and find a supplier in your area for pellet trained yellow perch and raise them as the base panfish. Depending on food supply they will easily get up to 12"-13" long in your pond. If you need help with perch population control use walleye or SMB. If you do not like the fishery after several years you can always add LMB and bgill later and they will eventually take over and be the most abundant ones.

Your best forage fish will be dependant on what your are trying to raise. Different predators "prefer" different types of forage items/fish. Decide on which is the preferred predator and I can tell what are the best options for forage fish.