Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose is my new pond ready to stock?

i have a new pond in hopkins county in north/east texas. it will be 6 acres when full and about 1/2 full now. was completed last june and has had some water for about 4 months. however, 75% of the water has run in within the past2 months. i had texas a&m test the new water and the total alkalinity is 86ppm and the ph is 7.10 and the hardness is 94ppm, the phosphorus is .08ppm and a lot of other numbers that i don,t what they mean. i was planning on stocking the blue gill and fathead minnows as early in spring as possible, i was thinking about march 1. then stock the bass in june. does anybody know any think else i need to do before i stock the blue gill and minnows or do you think it is ready to go. and do the dates seem ok to you all?

thanks
darrell stringer

I would stock BG this spring, but I wouldn't stock bass untill the following spring. That gives the BG 1 summer to mature and spawn. What size BG and LMB do you plan on stocking?

Yes that is good stocking plan. The northern guys will say wait a year before bass. However if you stock the bluegill in spring they will reproduce later this spring to start providing forage for bass. Go with it 800 bluegill 200 redear/acre. Then 50-100 largemouth bass/acre depending on goals.

Your stocking plan is fine. However, I usually recommend waiting until the fall to stock bass. This allows your forage to grow all year and you can stock fewer bass because they are larger, say 25-50/acre. Therefore the cost is similar.

Either way, your off to a good start.

I would listen to Greg or Fishman. I'm no expert and I'm a yankee.

TYW33, I haven't enjoyed a post that much in a while.

Move over Dudley.

Last fall I stocked a mixture of 2500 redear and bluegill and 2500 bream also 2000 fatty minnows by this fall I hope to be ready to stock our large mouth bass. We even talked of waiting another year so we would have lots of bass food.

"I'm no expert and I'm a yankee."

Now THAT is some funny stuff.

Somebody ought to use that in their signature. That's good for a laugh any time.

Man after reading my post it might seem I want to speed things along. I can not agree enough that forage needs to be well established prior to stocking bass. I harp on this all the time to my clients. However, deaner for instance you will lose a year of bass growth by waiting another year. Here in GA we stock 1-2 inch bluegill as late as March and then 1-2 inch bass in June and have great bass growth and well established bluegill. However stocking 1-2 inch bluegill after about April and your behind the 8-ball.

Darrell, if I were you, I would stock ADULT Bluegill immediately ! That will give them a little time to adjust for the shock of the transfer, get familiar with your surroundings, make friends...and spawn at the first possible opportunity. Without predators, 10,000 offspring go a long way to establish your forage base. I stocked adult bgill last year in March (Eastland TX...2 hours west of Dallas) and have TONS of forage for the baby bass due this Spring. (i.e. stocked 16+ inch adult bass in November)

I saw Walleye in this discussion which hasn't come up before in the other posts I have read. I am starting to stock my pond and my plan was:

Fatheads
BG
LMB
Channel Cats

I called the local fishery and they have Walleyes available this weekend. I was going to get Fatheads now, then dump in the BG and then the LMB in the fall. However if he has Walleyes ready to go, should I just skip the other stuff and go with the Walleyes? He said he wouldn't put in fatheads if I was going to put in the Walleyes now. He said I should put in the minimum order which is 10,000 and he said I should expect 5% survival. My pond is 1.5 acres but unless I get some rain, it will be 1 acre..

Thoughts, suggestions, comments?

Thanks!

Lew

Goldeneye, First you pond is not large enough to sustain a walleye fishery effectively. I wish it was for your sake but it isn't. Second 10,000 walleye??? What is he crazy? That is way way way way too many for a lake 10 to 20 times your size. Third you should never never add the top of the food chain( and trust me walleye are!! ) prior to adding base of the foodchain ( aka the fatheads ) One thing you start to learn is that some or maybe most fish hatcheries will try to sell you more fish than your pond could support and they will try to sell you everything NOW!!!! They will try to getas much money now and if your food chain is not built correctly they can get more money from you later as you stock or re-stock to adjust the earlier mistakes.

As for the types of fish I am all for you picking whatever you want in your pond. You will see however some people have very strong opinions about catfish and if they should be in ponds, they are one of the top predators and could throw the balance off in your pond. I would also say if you can hold yourself from getting everything this year. I would start out with the fatheads now and move the gills in in the late summer early fall and add the other fish next summer. Just a thought. Good luck and by all means be careful on how many fish you add, a pond as small as 1.5 acres can get to its bio mass quickly.

Thanks for the advice. I since talked to the DNR and they said that due to how shallow my pond is the water would probably get too warm for Walleye anyway. Part of the reason he said 10,000 Walleye was because that was his minimum order. If I wanted less Walleye I would be paying for them and not getting them.

The fishery said since these were fry he suggested putting them in first and fatheads later when the fry would be grown enough to eat them. For now the fry could eat plankton and bugs.

After talking to the DNR I am back on the fathead, BG, LMB plan

After talking to the biggest fishery in the state I am back on the Walleye plan..

In the meantime my pond is drying up...getting smaller every day and the last rain hardly helped more than being a nuisance.

GP,

Would you be willing to share what info the hatchery provided to make you switch to walleyes?

Eric,

Any updates on the SMB/Perch combination?

Russ

GoldenPond, I'm no expert, many here are......I'm still learning as I go. But for God's sake don't put 10,000 Walleye in your pond!

Russ, Not much new to say on the combo of perch and SMB yet. Bass yet to go in. I have given the perch the winter and spring to get some size before I add the SMB. They go in sometime around July I think. But thus far I havent seen any dead perch and sometimes see a quick dark of the perch as they chase the fatheads. I think the perch are now about 7 - 8 inches and growing well. I still have significant fathead populations ( in the millions ) and I only have about 75 perch in the pond that I know of. I have more than enough frogs and tadpoles ( over 250 frogs and I am guessing 2- 3,000 bullfrog pollywogs ) I am sort of hoping the Heron will help me out there. Thus as you could expect when you get great advice from the experts here the pond is in very good shape and the balance is great as well. I still can't wait to get the SMB in there, but I have learned and seen the value of patience in pond eco systems. Also as a side note the cheap aereation system ( $80 ) is working great and keeping the pond fairly clean and nice O2 levels. I do have some Algae but the 8 wood ducks who visit daily try to take care of that. Stay tuned as the next phase of this continues with the SMB.

Hold off on stocking Moz. Tilapia untill the year after you stock your bass, but add them every year in the spring there after.

Thanks for the update Eric. Sounds like you're going to have a fine fishing hole for your kids.

Russ

That is the general plan and Idea. So far my 10 yr old ( going on 25 ) can't wait until the fish are large enough to fish for and the 1 yr old loves looking at the minnows and pollywogs and bugs and yelling at them. Life could not be more fun!!!