Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations This seems excessive

This is what was recommended by Ken's for stocking rates. This seems like a lot of fish to me. Opinions?

If you’re feeding the fish we recommend 3000/acre in Georgia Giants, and on catfish and bass you stock them on a 1 to 5 ratio (600 catfish and 600 bass per acre). If you’re aerating you stock 5000 Georgia Giants/acre and if you’re NOT feeding or aerating you stock 1000 Georgia Giants/acre. You would stock the bream now and the catfish and bass in the spring to give the Georgia Giants a head start.

Keith, the stocking philosophies of Ken's have been discussed at length here on the forum.

Perhaps someone can do a search and bring up some old information.

My summary of the stocking recommendations is that I may have gone with those recommendations before I had found the wealth of information here at Pond Boss. However, after seeing the wealth of information here on the forum, I would not embark on those stocking numbers.

As far as I can recall, maybe less than 5 or 10 members have experience with the Georgia Giants, and those that have told us about them seem to be positive; HOWEVER, I don't think anyone went with those suggested stocking numbers.

I might also add that 600 bass AND 600 catfish per acre does not leave a lot of room for much else.

BTW, I think they like to sell Hybrid Striped Bass which they incorrectly refer to as Small Mouth Bass.

RUN, Forrest, Run!

Ok....if this was YOUR 1/2 acre pond, what rate would YOU stock. It doesn't have to be GG. I want some type of bream, catfish, and some bass.

Fire away!!!

I put in about 2 GC, 20 HSB, 225 BG, 25 HBG, 15 CC, 40 LMB and 10lbs of fatheads. BG, HBG, and FH all the first year. LMB and GC the second. HSB the 4th year. Also been stocking tilapia since the 4th year. No regrets except I probably wouldn't stock CC again, they've grown to over 10lbs and are hard to catch.

I would probably stock about 350 bluegill, about 100 to 150 redears, 75 3 to 4 inch CC, and a couple of pounds of fatheads. I would absolutely be feeding. After the BG and and fatheads got thick, I would stock about 25 6 to 8 inch bass.

After a year or 2, I would start eating catfish. After the second year of LMB, I would toss every newly spawned one that I caught on the bank. There's no way that you can catch even 50% of them.

It is double tough to re-establish any kind of small forage fish after the LMB get going.

Let me qualify everything above. I'm assuming a full 1/2 acre water hole. The weather guys are forecasting a La Nina(drought) for our area. You might be wise to cut everything that I said by 50%. Actually, I kinda like the conservative approach. My ponds are already down 3 ft. and I lost my optimism about rain a long time ago.

Would I have to restock the CC periodically?

Yeah, but they are reasonably inexpensive. Once you get bass, your restocking has to be in the 8 to 10 inch category. The 3 to 4 inch ones become fish food.

ROTFLOL!

Two days I can't get on the forum - this made it all worth waiting for!

700 CNBG @ 2in. and 25 4-5in. CNBG spring pre spawn
5 lbs FH early spring
50 LMB @ 4in in fall

My 2 cents.

Those stocking rates from Ken are a recipe for disaster unless you are running a hatchery/aquaculture operation with lots of prior experience.

Dave, don't want to get off topic, but your ponds are down 3' already.
I'm sorry to hear that.