Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Two-story fishery?

Long time PB subscriber here (own every issue) and relatively new pond owner. I have always enjoyed all of the helpful information in the mag and on this site.

We put in a 1.5 acre pond almost five years ago. It took about 3 years to work through some major issues with leaks, but aside from one area with some seepage, we seem to be in pretty good shape.

The pond has maximum depth of about 16', but most is in the 4' to 7' range. Pond is in a high desert area with fairly wide temp. fluctuations day and night, but seasonal extremes are not too bad (we're zone 5). During height of summer, temps in a shallow, sheltered, rocky canal that forms part of the pond gets into the upper 70s water temp. Highest temperature at depth has been upper 60s. Lots of wind constantly mixing the water. Very clear water with several feet of visibility most of the year, which usually drops to 3 or four feet during summer.

A little over two years ago we stocked with Rbt (Eagle Lake Strain) x Steelhead cross that have performed well and have year round survival. I feed AQMX 600 Spring and Fall. Fish are currently 15" to 24." Currently the only other fish are sticklebacks (lots of them) that come in with the irrigation water. I asked on this site about 5 years ago asking whether the RBT would effectively forage on the sticklebacks, - as everyone told me then, yes, they most definitely do.

The hatchery recommended the Eagle Lake cross because they are a high desert fish (from northern CA) and apparently have some resistance to disease organism in our watershed (ceratomyxa shasta) and can better handle marginal water temps. As noted above, the fish have done well and are spectactular fighters.

So, the problem is sourcing the fish. The hatchery where they originated apparently had problems with whirling disease and the Eagle Lake strain RBT is unavailable for at least another 2 to 3 years. Between the osprey and eagles, and who knows what else, I'm down to about 30-35 RBT, which doesn't support much of a fishery in a pond that size. I tried stocking "standard" strain RBT and they all died within a month of stocking. I've not had success finding any other source in-state, and Oregon has very strict limits on landowners buying fish from hatheries out of state.

To maintain a fishery, I'm considering adding warm water fish. This would also add some diversity and potentially extend the fishing season (I try to leave the Trout alone in July/August). With the problems sourcing fish, the idea of a reproducing population also sounds good now, even if it will require some extra management effort).

For our watershed, my understanding is that private pond owners are limited to LMB, BG, RE, PS, BC and RBT.

I'm considering adding LMB and RE. I believe RE would do fine (a pond near us has them and I have caught some nice ones there). I'm leaning towards leaving out the BG due to our latitude and elevation and concerns that the LMB may not be able to keep up or that it would take a lot of effort to manage BG. I would be happy with LMB in the 1 to 3 lb. range and RE in 7" to 9" range if that is doable.

Another factor against BG in my minds is that I don't currently feed during July/August. My understanding is that its best not to feed the trout when the water is warm (and I still want to stock trout periodically if I can find the right type). If I was going to grow good sized BG, particulalry in this climate, my understanding is that I would probably need to feed during the summer?

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated, particularly whether I should reconsider BG, whether feeding during warm weather would be a problem for trout (or would they know when to stop?) and how these warmwater fish migh interact with trout (I understand that I will need larger stocking sizes with LMB present).

Thanks in advance for any insights or other feedback!

P.S. I'm also intrigued by BC, but am hesitant to add them based on what I've read here and elsewhere.

I wouldn't add BC. The RES won't reproduce enough to feed the LMB. You're pretty much stuck with stocking BG if you want to have LMB. Can you stock SMB? If so, you can get away without having BG in the pond then.

Double/triple check what fish you are allowed to stock. Ask if Hybrid Striped Bass are a viable option too. They normally don't spawn in ponds.

Thanks for the reply esshup.

I would love to have SMB and previously checked with the fish and game department about stocking them. It was a definitive and emphatic "no." Their policy is not to allow stocking any new types of fish in the basin (no SMB in this watershed). This matches the printed regulations, so I'm confident that SMB are out of the picture.

Your HSB idea is interesting. We don't have them in the basin, but there is an area 100 or so miles south of here with similar climate that grows some big HSB. I think I've seen reports that they are "functionaly sterile" - perhaps that would be enough to offset the fact that they aren't currently present in the basin. I'll check into it.

Any additional experiences or suggestions on this situation or in having a combined warm water/cold water pond fishery is greatly appreciated.

I spoke with the fisheries bioligist and confirmed that state stocking guidelines prohibit HSB (and SMB) for our area. He said that folks in this area have had good success with LMB/BG combo, but it might be a good idea to help the LMB with spawning nests as some local ponds have trouble with successful recruitment of LMB.

He confirmed that that the BC are best left out, and also thought for our area that, if I can source trout in the future, they should do just fine with the warm water fish (subject to larger stocking size on subsequent trout plants).

So it looks like I am going to proceed with stocking the LMB,RES and BG and will have a two story fishery so long as the trout last. I'll likely be stocking adult or sub-adult warm water fish (due to limited availability of fingerlings and the 30 or so large trout cruising the pond).

I seem to recall that for northern ponds the stocking rates and timing is a bit different than for more southerly areas, that perhaps LMB are stocked first, but perhaps everything can be stocked at once if using older fish like I am planning? I'll try to read up on that on the site, but in the meantime, any comments our pointers on stocking LMB, BG & RES in a northern pond (3500' altitude) would be appreciated. Thanks.