Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Hello From Ohio

Hello! New member from Ohio. Ive been Googling what I should do with a new pond I've built, and my head gets to spinning with all the different answers to questions not quite like my own. I called my local fish hatcheries and got opposing opinions on what I should do. So I figured I'd sign up here and get some specific help.

So here's the situation... When I bought my farm it had two fields connected by a dirt road about 150 yards long, the road is completely surrounded by woods. The lowest part of the road had become a mud hole that got so bad the field at the end couldn't be accessed by tractors. In 5 years I never saw the mud hole not holding water. This past spring, we cleared an area along side the road, rented an excavator, and dug out the new clearing enough to bury a culvert, and raise the whole road. The resulting pond is now approximately 40ft in diameter, and about 7ft at the deepest. I left a couple benches in there so it wasn't just a bathtub. I had my doubts that it would be full and ready to stock this coming spring, so I haven't put anything in it for structure. As of yesterday however it is full.
So my question of course is what should I do with it. We already have a one acre pond by the house that is stocked well (I believe) w/ Large Mouth, Channel Cat, sunfish (haven't done my research to make sure what type of sunfish they are), yellow pearch, and crappie. Im not really concerned with the new pond being used for recreation at all. Mainly Id like to keep the mosquitos under control, and occasionally catch a few fish for the table. What would you do? Thanks

Welcome to PB.

Northern Ohio? Is your pond Lake Erie?

Not quite. Ashland aread

You have all the "standard" fish covered in your other pond. Have you thought about trout. They would only be seasonal. I wonder if you are out of the Lake Erie watershed. If so, you might be able to go with HSB.

I'm a ways from you, to the northeast, past Kent.

Welcome to PBF!

HBG might be and option for you. Limited reproduction and very nice fish to catch and eat.

Giving this a little more thought, to meet your goals, I would stock FHM and GSH. Later I would stock HBG and HSB. The FHM will eventually disappear but will give your table fish a good start. Downside is you will probably have to restock the HBG and HSB every once and a while depending on how many you harvest.

Welcome, Harv6!

You've come to the right place, with the right people! So take your time, do a lot of research, decide on what you really want as a goal for your new pond and then do more research.

I'm a pond newbe and have made plenty of mistakes, so I'm not one you should put full stock into .

But here's some thoughts:

1. You want to be sure the pond is going to hold water! Even though it's full, give it some time to see if it will stay that way. You will get some natural wicking with a new pond but give it enough time to know for sure the water will stay in there.

2. Resist every temptation to transfer adult fish from your existing pond to your new one! Start with a good forage base that your newly stocked fish can grow with.

3. Be cautious of the Crappie you have in your other pond and in my opinion, DO NOT stock Crappie in your new pond. If the LMB in your other pond are stunted, having Crappie in there could be the reason (this is a whole other subject you should look into!). And once they're there, they will be virtually impossible to remove!

4. Get to know the folks here on The Pond Boss forum! It's a family of folks wanting nothing more than to see you succeed in reaching your goals, and being there with you along the way!

5. Have fun! You'll learn a ton and have a blast along the way (along with all the head-scratches and headaches that go with managing a pond!)

Once again, welcome!

40' diameter is relatively small. Roughly 1200 square feet.

Why not stock it with Fathead Minnows and Golden Shiners and use it as a forage pond. Use minnow traps to catch the minnows to use to fish with in the larger pond. Those fish will keep the skeeters under control.

Any fish other than minnows that you stock and are capable of reproducing will need managing, i.e. catching and removing.

I would not add structure to this pond. Structure will not be needed for any fish that you stock in this very small pond aka mini-pond. At 40ft dia and 7 ft deep it is almost a large washtub with quite steep sides. There will likely be some sloughing of the very steep side walls as the pond ages. Draining the pond in 6-10 yrs will show the sloughing that has occurred.

Without aeration it will thermally stratify in summer to where there is no oxygen at the bottom and likely no DO deeper than 5 ft during late Jun, Jul, Aug, so,,,, especially after it ages (eutrophication), expect some fish kills when it develops a summer turnover due to cool weather and a cold rain storm event. At best, use it as a forage fish pond to produce smaller fish to feed the predators in the larger pond &/or grow fingerling fish to larger sizes that can be stocked to enhance the sport fish in the larger pond. This is why you don't want structure in this mini-pond because structure will prevent seining and/or collecting fish that will be transferred to the large pond.

Thanks for all the replies. After reading a bit more.... Would it be a bad idea to stock FHM and GS. Then next spring take any BG I catch from my bigger pond that identify as male, and transfer them to the small pond? My logic here is that I can grow some big bull males to eventually catch and transfer back to the original pond to improve overall BG size in the old pond. And i can trap FHM/GS for relocation as well. Does this plan sound like it'll work?

Yes - Your plan of fatheads, shiners, and male bluegill in the mini-pond will work very well until you make a mistake and add one female bluegill and then start to see small BG while transferring fish from the mini-pond to the large pond. Since the pond is quite small it will be easy /simple to drain it, treat the low puddle with hydrated lime or anhydrous ammonia to kill remaining fish and start over. By then the black spot and or fish grubs may have invaded the mini-pond and when this happens it is be best to periodically renovate it and start with a new clean crop of baitfish. Fish eating birds will bring in the fish parasites.

Remember the BG will need to about 8" long before you can accurately determine the sex of male vs female. Whenever there is a doubt, throw it out - don't add it. Add only BG that have obvious male features. It is also best to select the fish for transfer during breeding season when colors and external features are most apparent.

Bill C. is the pro so best you listen to him.

FWIW if it was me, I would go FHM and HBG and forget transferring BG to the other pond. The HBG will have limited, if any reproduction, grow fast and taste great if a fun fight and table food is what yer looking for. The FHM will be there for mosquito control with spawn for the HBG to munch on. Of course, you would have to keep stocking the HBG but all male BG don't reproduce either.

Just another thought.

Revisiting this sight before I placed my order.... The fish hatchery I'd like to order from sent me a catalog and I noticed "Mosquito Fish" or Gambusia. I knew nothing about them and found quite a few good and bad reviews on them.

As a complete newby, they sound like they might fit my situation pretty well. If I stocked ONLY them at the hatchery recommended rate I'd only need a couple dozen tops. By middle of May they'd reproduce. And by that time i'm guessing Id have a few of those male BG in there that ID mentioned catching before. It sounds like if I accidently got a few female BG in there the gams would most likely keep the nests robbed of eggs...

On the other hand if I purposely transplanted both male and female BG and they were able to reproduce, would the gams by themselves (and other wild bugs/worms) provide enough forage for the BG to populate so that I could set minnow traps and transfer the BG young back to my main pond as forage? I don't have gams in my main pond now and I think I'd like to keep it that way. Am I off base with those ideas?

Fathead minnows and golden shiners will eat more mosquito larvae than gambusia. The cold may kill the gams every winter also.