Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Small catfish pond?

Me and my dad are renevating a stock pond on some property in central texas we just bought. Its >1 acre and will be about 10 feet deep. it was pretty full this summer but is has drained out and theres very little water in it now. we are putting a pipe in to pump water to it from our well and planned on stocking it with mostly channel cats with a few bass and a few blue cats. i was wondering what else we should put in for feeder fish and in plant life.

Tons10, welcome aboard!

Because the fish you mention (channel cats, few bass, and blue cats) are all predator fish, you are right on to think about feeder or forage fish.

In fact, a lot of folks suggest to stock your feeder fish way before your predator fish; sometimes even a year if you can be that patient.

Bluegill and fathead minnows are some basic fish that could be stocked ahead of time as feeder fish, quantities to be determined.

Anyone else have some thoughts?

I know before it drained there was pretty good vegitation but no fish not even minnows, and there was alot of frogs around. im not sure if the vegitation will come back once we refil it or if we need to replace it. We were planning on putting in minnows but i wasnt sure on what else.

Vegetation should not have a problem reestablishing iteslf.

Channel cats would readily take fish feed and do well on it; Blues and LMB are not nearly as likely too. They will need some longterm forage species to eat - BG are the classic answer which can survive LMB predation.

Blues would end up as the top, largest predators that can eat anything else (LMB included).

well the pump should be on the well in the next couple weeks and i was looking at stocking the feeder fish sometime late december or early january. and then putting in some cats in late march so they will have some time to grow befoee i get home from school for the summer. i was thinking about putting in mostly smaller but tossing in a few larger cats that would be ready during the summer just to give me something to do.

If you throw in some larger catfish, they may have a tendency to eat most of the fish that you are going to stock as your forage base.

Just something to be aware of...

i had thought of that and we were talking about getting a feeder which i think would reduce that. but i really dont know. it would be nice if we had some fish that would be ready to catch by this summer. i really hadnt got into any specifics yet. i just wanted to see the feasibilty of having there be some catchable fish soon.

im definitally going to put in some fatheads soon. it sounds like bluegill is another really good forage fish to put in. and ill probably look into them.

at the fishery that is closest they have cc at 4-6" and 8-11" now. wound getting mostly 4-6 and a few 8-11 be feasible or would the big ones eat all the little ones and all the forage? how big would they get from march to june?

If you were able to find some larger bluegill, maybe 3-5" or slightly bigger, and you were feeding, these bluegill may be able to stay ahead of a 4-6" stocking size channel catfish from a predator/prey standpoint.

If you could buy 5" bluegill or bigger, then they could stay ahead of 8-11" stocker channel catfish.

Once these catfish get to 18" and bigger, they will start to need bigger fish to eat (in addition to feed), such as 5" and bigger bluegill.

Removal of larger channel catfish may be an important part of the plan in order to maintain the forage base.

Howdy Tons-

Always nice to see another catfish enthusiast on the forum.

I think establishing a great forage base ASAP, as you've been advised to do, is the most important thing to do right now.

A couple other thoughts:

1] If you can get a good forage base in, you might be able to purchase a few larger cats from a supplier in your area; around here, with a little persistance, they can be had, for not too much-if you're really gung ho to be catching large fish this summer.

2] If you feed, your 11" channel cats will be really substantial by mid to late summer.

3] I can't recall reading about tilapia as forage for catfish, but if your area warms up early, and if you have a lot of vegetation in the water, you might consider adding a healthy dollop of tilapia in the late spring-especially if you plan to put any blues in your pond.

4] Careful about taking advice on catfish from that Gallus guy. If I recall, his last contribution to a discussion such as this contained the terms "catfish" and "12 gauge shotgun" in the same sentence. Sorry, I couldn't find the thread, but take my word for it and watch your step.

I believe the exact quote was "Try not to eat too many of them pellets. They're made out of lead."

The hatchery has bluegills from 1-3, 3-4, 4-6, and 6+ so i can get an array of sizes.

its texas so the weather is sporatic. last year we had snow on easter. but most years it warms up in march and stays warm.

another thing to consider is the fact that after i head back to school in sept there will not be nearly as much fishing. there will be some tho. how often do you need to take out the larger cats to maintain a healthy balence?

I put small fingerling channel cats, copper nose bluegill and fathead minnows into my small 3/4 acre pond in April of 2006. I put them all in at the same time and started feeding them floating catfish food every day since then.

In the fall of 2006, we were catching cats that were just over a pound. The bluegill had disapeared and I didn't see any of them. The minnows had spawned several times.

In the spring of 2007, at about a year after putting the fish into the pond, we started catching bluegill. They had spawned and I cought hundreds of them with a sien net.

During the summer, with daily feedings, the catfish grew like crazy. In September of this year, we were regularly catching 3 pounders. It's colder out now and we haven't fished the pond in about two months, but we are still feeding them. Just not as much food.

Here are two pics of my wife with some 3 pound cats that she cought.

Eddie

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