Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Help!!!!!!! My head hurts!!!!

After reading the replies from my previous post I became thouroughly confused. I am definately a newbie and want a pond that I can catch a few fish in for a family get together and occassionally catch a 3 lb bass for good measures. The following is a copy and paste of my first post on the board with my response to a few questions asked of me. I guess my main concern is am I waisting my time by trying to establish bass, catfish, and blue gill in a pond that is .42 acres? If you believe that this is indeed possible could you suggest a stocking plan that would help me achieve my goal? Please everything as simple as possible (kinda hard to do with so many variables) because my head hurts from reading 10 pages of posts on the board. Thanks again.


I will be adding on to an existing pond and whenever finished my calculations come up to approximately 18300 square feet which equates to .42 acres. For the inevitable question that you most likely knew was coming, what can I safely stock??? This pond will be 10 feet at its deepest and should have no problems maintaining at least an 8' level during the summer going by neighboring ponds. It will fill primarily by runoff and I may use an existing water well to help sustain this level if needed. Thanks for your time and please excuse my "rookie" question. Maybe in time I will learn enough to contribute meaningfully.

Ok...Pond was completely drained and all fish removed last month. Would love to put bass, bluegill, and catfish in the pond but I'm not so sure they would coexist very well in a half acre pond. Obviously bass of trophy quality are out of the question but 2-3 pound fish should definately be within the realm of possibility. Before draining the pond, water stayed muddy. It was only 6' deep at the deepest and had numerous yellow catfish(i'm assuming this is what is being referred to as bullheads?) Never really tried to clear the muddy water (Ag Lime) due to the fact that I knew I was going to be draining and extending. After draining, there was absolutely no grass or any plant life whatsoever in the pond. I will probably be feeding as my wife enjoys sitting at the pond and watching them feed. There are some trees that surround the pond but none are within 15 yards of the edge. Hope this message wasn't too hard to decipher and thanks for the advice.

Keith Price,

Yes, absolutely you can have an occasional 3 pound bass in a 1/2 acre pond. I've raised one to 8 pounds in such a pond....but that is over a many year period.

First, use the guideline that says 100 pounds of predator fish per acre. In your case, that means no more than 42 pounds. The combo of LMB and catfish should not exceed that number and a wise person might want some additional margin.

Your best chance at raising some good bass is without the catfish. It is your choice.

Here is one option (and there are many others):

1) stock your forage base first now, including fathead minnows (about 5 pounds) and Coppernosed BG (about 400 to 500). A combination of CNBG and red ear sunfish (RES) in a 4 to 1 ratio is also good, i.e. 400 CNBG and 100 RES. When the water temps warm to above 60 degrees stock about 5 pounds of Tilapia.

2) In June or later if you can stand to wait, stock about 25 to 40 fingerling F1 LMB. Less bass generally means you can grow larger bass. Again, it depends on what you want. The F1 is a cross between Florida genes(grow large) and native genes(aggressive fish).

Don't fish until the following spring and as time goes by remove the small LMB (those under say 8 inches at first and then 10 inches and under later). The Tilapia will have to be restocked each year. They will die at about 55 deg water temps. They are well worth the investment in terms of water quality and forage. One last suggestion. I would stock one grass carp probably in June or later as a prevention against pond weed.

This is only one of an infinite combination of plans...the right plan for you depends on your specific goals/objectives. Hope this helps some.

little more difficult to keep in "balance" due to size but very doable.

If feeding and fertilzing:
Stock now or sometime b/f March
fingerlings- 350 bluegill 100 redear 3 lbs fathead minnows, 4 3-5 inch grass carp
100 3-5 inch channel catfish (plan to takeout 80% by the time they reach 2 lbs.)

June-stock 25-50 bass F1's, low number if you want bigger/faster growth. You can fish for bluegill this summer but return them. You can catch some bass this fall but do not remove any of the orignal stock ever. This willbe the best bass you will have. At year 2, fall you can remove percentage of F2 bass. Good luck it will be a nice pond if stocked and maintained properly.

Greg said:
I you're not sure you can (or want to) take out that many CC before they get too big, stock fewer. Larger CC are the cheapest fish to add later on (in a size big enough to avoid predation by big bass) if/when you want to restock.

Theo I agree with you. However one BIG advantage is the catfish grow quickly and provide some fun to the pondowner while waiting on the others to grow. Too many fewer and tougher to catch. Also you are talking about $25 now for the fish vs. Let's say adding 40 1 lb cats later would be $100.

KP :

Go to the link below. It is a good basic pond mgt. how to pub. by the Fisheries Science Dept. for Miss. LA may have one also which I will locate and post later. Go to stocking at the link and they have info on a pond with BG ,CC and LMB in an easy to use chart.

http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p1428.pdf

Good advice in the above posts. One point on ML's post - if you can use tilapia be sure that your water temps. (deep south LA.) will get cold enough to kill them in winter as they are prolific reproducers.

Here is a LA. link with same chart and info.

http://www.seagrantfish.lsu.edu/resources/factsheets/pond_mgmt.htm