Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking 3/4 acre pond

Max depth 12 ft. Average depth 9 ft, banks pretty steep. 20 ton river rock in beach area plus lots of rocks and boulders around edge! Thinking smallmouth or trout. Would like to stock crayfish.

Trout will not live in your pond during July & August when the deeper cold water loses its oxygen and forces the trout into the warm top layer where the temperature above 70F kills the trout. Trout will live well in your pond from October to most of June when they can grow from 10" to 16-17" and make spring fishing exciting. Yellow perch(YP), SMB, HSB, all the sunfishes, and walleye(WE) even a few pike will live in your pond year round. Establish lots of fish food first then stock some predators. Lots here to read about numerous fish stocking combinations.
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^^^^ Listen to Bill ^^^^^^^

Trout won't make it past June and small mouth will struggle at best. You need to stock for the region you live in, Ohio is not Wisconsin.

I don't live far from you. I have stocked trout several times now, and they are a blast. My pond is also similar to your depth, etc. and the trout don't live past June. Even in June they get very difficult to catch as they are in a slowed down mode. But very soon, it is going to get FUN.

-- also.. the 16 -17" is where I get mine to. Some are pushing 3#

My pond is just as far North as Hkbwpro111 and the trout that I have stocked have lived until July 4th weekend on a cool year, but for the most part I try to get them all fished out before June.

As for SMB, they can do well here, and they can do well in a lot warmer water than many people think. AaronM has grown some pretty impressive specimens in his pond when he lived in Phoenix, Az. It all about water quality and stress.

A client that is approximately 15 miles South of me has had SMB in his pond for 4 years now, and I believe some are approaching 4 pounds. He does not supplementally feed his pond, but he does have aeration in it.

Cody Note: One moderator has smallmouth growing in his Texas pond and it is definitely not Wisconsin.

I'm checking now into aeration, but would like to give them a try

Sounds fun. Is your pond spring fed? That might help keep the temps down longer. FWIW one of the biologists at the fish farm I use told me there are a couple of ponds in Northwest Illinois that have trout year around but they receive a good continuous flow of spring water.

No springs so I'm going to concentrate on smallmouth bass.need get food chain established

Someone was telling me about a different strain of small mouth that was being bred that tolerated warmer waters. Is there such an animal? I was hell bent on smallys when I initially stocked but was talked out of it by some folks way smarter than me.

You will need crayfish. Crayfish need lots of rocks. I wish you all of the luck.

The last batches of SMB that I stocked came from Michigan. They seem to be doing fine.

Many of the "so called experts" about SMB rely on the skewed or biased information in the historical literature that all reference one piece of early fishery research of a lake that found largemouth bass were in shallow habitat and smallmouth bass were in the deeper cooler water habitat. Human conclusion was SMB preferred that cooler deeper habitat and LMB preferred the shallower warmer areas. NOT REALLY. SMB were in deeper cooler habitat because the LMB chased or bullied the smallies out of the warmer areas with the most food. So to survive the adaptable smallies used the unoccupied habitat of deep cool water. Truth is smallmouth bass tolerate and do well in warm water in the low 90F as long as dissolved oxygen remains above 4-5ppm. DO sags in eutrophic nutrient rich green water are responsible for almost all the warm water deaths of smallmouth bass.