Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose New Pond stocking

I built a 2.5 acre pond last year in south western Indiana and followed the advise of Ray Scott and it's time to stock. I would like to make this the absolute best bass fishing pond that I can. I have got several accelerated stocking quotes and wanted to know the thoughts of this forum:
Fatheads: 1-3" ~ 60lbs
Golden Shiners 2-5" ~ 45lbs
LMB 5-7" ~ 200
HSB 5-7" ~ 40
BG 4-6" ~ 600
HBG 4-6" ~ 350
RSF 4-6" ~ 300
Grass Carp ~ 16
Bullfrog tadpoles ~ 450
Willing to spend the money to make it good, just would like a little expert advise.

Welcome Jbird!

Lots of folks here will help I am sure.

A few questions to get things rolling for you.

Are you in a hurry or willing to let nature take its course?

What is a RSF?

Why 16 grass carp? Do you already have a vegetation problem?

Why HBG when you are stocking BG?

Why 450 BF tadpoles? I have never seen them for a cheap price.

Welcome!

Bill D.

Is this all to go in at the same time? I question the need for the HBG, and I'm not sure I would add the GC until/if the need arises.

The BG numbers seem light to me, but perhaps the other forage would enable them to recruit quickly.

I ended up with a few HBG in with my original BG stocking and I have to say I like them. Have caught most of them and moved to my old pond, but when the fish were not biting very well, the most likely fish to catch was one of the HBG.

Unless they cause a specific problem (I could see where they would be harder on the minnow population) having some, I think if I were stocking a new pond I would put a few in. Maybe not a lot, but I don't see where they hurt my pond and I kind of like them. In fact, if I can catch a gravid GSF female, I'm going to put one in my RES/FHM forage pond specifically so I can get a few RES/GSF hybrids for stocking purposes.

Not saying it is the smart or right thing to do, but to me a small number of HBG gives some variety to the catch.

I am defintely not an expert but IMHO if my only goal for my Indiana pond is big LMB and vegetation is a concern I would stock....

to start

GSH
BG
RES or PS for snail and parasite control
LMB
Papershell crawfish for the LMB and vegetation control


Frogs will come on their own from my experience

But that is just IMHO

The list was proposed to me. I have no weed problems yet. I have read about several stocking options and that's why I'm asking. I would prefer to get my fish accelerated. I have another pond that's 1.25 acres and 4 years old. It's doing well put I want faster growth. I put in fingerlings in the small pond and just want to get A head start on new pond. Also, I want no catfish in new pond.

Yes, put all in at same time was the plan.

Will you be angling to keep the LMB from over populating? IMHO If not, the HSB might be a good idea.

If you are only worried about fast growth and money is no object, IMHO you should consider stocking pellet trained LMB and set up an automatic feeder(s).

If trophy LMB is the sole goal, leave the HBG out.

I'd cut the bass number in half and wait to stock them until fall. I'd stock the other species this spring. I'd also leave the GC out until vegetation became a concern. I'd also stock papershell crayfish and create some habitat for them.

I talked to several of the fish farms in S IN and Jones in Cinci. That looks like a standard Jones accelerated stocking plan minus cats. Don't get your stocking plan from someone selling fish. They sell fish, they don't really work to your goals.

My S IN pond got a good number of frogs in the first year. There is a creek somewhat nearby. Let's see here, this fishery has tadpoles at $30/100. I had a $300-400 egg mass in my pond a couple weeks ago- for free.

If you're willing to give your forage fish a head start, you can stock a lot less than 100 lbs of FHM/GSH. Save $1000 there. If you stock all at once, then that's the price you pay.

Listen to folks' comments on skewing BG/LMB ratio if bass is your focus.

There is nothing between GSH and 4-5" BG in there for 5-7" LMB to eat. If we are buying feeder fish in an "all-at-once" stocking plan, is there any sense in also getting some 2-3" BG? A 4" GSH seems like less of a meal than a 3" BG.

Welcome to the best pond fish growing forum anywhere.
Advice so far is very good except that advice coming from your stocking quote. Their advice and design is to sell you fish and get average results and not for you to grow trophy bass. Who specifically is advising you about your stocking plan?

IMO you need to do some more homework here about how to grow big trophy bass if that is truly your main goal. Your time learning will be well spent while the fish food base is developing in your pond prior to stocking. Read here how others have consistently grown big bass. Also read what others did to have poor success. Know the methods what happened in each case. Even some of Ray Scott's ponds have bass management problems and do not have great bass; usually due to too many bass and lack of attention to proper details for producing trophy bass. Ray tells the story of having an exclusive private fishing tournament to reduce overabundant bass numbers. Learn by example and follow the success stories.

Growing trophy bass is a science and art which requires proper knowledge and later proper fish management. Here is your assignment. Spend some time reading and becoming a good big bass growing student. Read and learn here what to expect as far as first year growth of your bass. Learn how to recognize less than expectable growth in successive years. Learn how recognize lack of food and slowing down of growth rates. Know what are realistic goals are for big bass in your region and water body size. Learn how many bass of each size group are possible in a pond your size. Learn about proper size distribution of all the bass in a pond for your goals. Learn about how important it is to have proper food at different growth stages and proper genetics to produce fast growing big bass.

Start your big bass growing journey by reading through these past experiences and learn the correct methods and what to avoid for growing trophy bass.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=255372#Post255372

Also if you don't already have it, consider buying the very good book 'Raising Trophy Bass'.
http://www.pondboss.com/store.asp?c=8

IMO if you truly want trophy bass be very careful where you buy the main fish for your goals - the bass. You want them to have a genetic history or pedigree for being trophy status; similar to raising prize winning dogs, cattle, or grain. If I really wanted trophy class bass, I would NOT get them from a regular fish farm or you will get very regular results.

Here is a link from our LMB Archives to a journey of how to grow big bass by a forum member who documents what it took to grow 8.5 lb bass in six years. Note he stocked fingerlings not advanced bass, which IMO using advanced bass or juveniles is a big mistake for several reasons if you truly want trophy bass. Learn by Jakeb's example. Numerous other examples are available in our LMB Management thread in the archives. Remember this member is in OK and a person in IN will take a little longer to get a bass to 8 pounds but it can be done if you use well proven methods.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=405971&page=1

Pay attention to posts by Greg Grimes from Aquatic Environmental Services who is one of several experts here for growing trophy bass. http://lakework.com/trophy-bass/
One of Greg's efforts to grow big bass
Nine month old bass:
http://lakework.com/check-out-the-growth-for-this-bass-that-we-stocked-only-9-months-ago/
Also on that page watch Greg's presentation of a case study for growing trophy bass. Learn by example:
http://lakework.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/sdafs-trophy-lmb.pdf

Note you can communicate with any PB forum member by Private Message(PM).

Here is a link to the acronyms used by members on this forum.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92442#Post92442

In IN you might want to rethink trying to just grow big LMB and focus more on big HSB which can grow to 10+ lbs quicker, easier (pellets) and fight noticeably harder than a LMB.




then big sis just under 27" - size 10 moc for comparison


Pictures from this thread:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=406994&page=10

I see NO reason to stock bullfrog tadpoles....that is just a money maker for the fish farm and bullfrogs will almost always show up without help, and leave about $400 available for more fish. Also see zero reason to stock Grass Carp until and unless needed for vegetation control...a new pond likely has nothing for GC to eat and would let the LMB destroy your early forage balance....Another couple hundred saved. The BG numbers are WAY too low for that many LMB suggested as well. Hybrid Bluegill might be fun for a kid to catch, but do nothing to help grow bass...all together, that is about $800 bucks to go toward a longer lasting, goal attaining stocking plan.


Cody note: As Rainman says, be suspect of most of all the advice coming from a place trying to sell you bullfrog tadpoles. They are not looking out for your best interests. Plus if they are selling you plant eliminating grass carp (white amur) for a new pond, where will the plant habitat be for the frogs and tadpoles for survival??? Think about it.

A pond really needs some rooted vegetation to enhance the food chain and refuge areas to help prevent over grazing of the forage fish. Over grazing of forage most often happens 2-3-4 yrs after the first bass spawn when the first LMB year class is 12"14".

Learning the best types of beneficial vegetation for well balanced ponds is part of the formula for creating the best habitat and food web for growing big bass. Know the difference between fish structure, amounts needed, plus the types of cover which includes dense and fluffy cover and how they apply to and contribute to refuge areas for forage fish. Fish structures or attractors are typically not true refuge areas. Know and understand the differences.

If you want to grow great wildlife you don't stock & grow them into barren or sparsely colonized fields. When you go hunting where do you hunt; in areas with or without variable diverse habitat types?

Consistently growing big bass long term starts before the pond has any water in it as explained by Greg Grimes' presentation in the link above.

I completely missed the part where Jbird said LMB was his focus goal. Did I miss it?

All I saw was "accelerated" and no catfish.

That is going to make a difference. If he has specific targets for specific fish. I missed it if he did.

Jbird, is trophy LMB your main goal, or do you want a more general fishery? Or other specific goals?

From his opening post

Thank you Bill. I read right over it and missed it.

Then definitely scratch the HBG. They would serve no purpose towards that goal that regular BG wouldn't provide for better, IMNEO.