Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Forage pond. What to stock?

Ok, I have a pond that im thinking about turning into a forage only pond. Its 50yrds across(round) im thinking about 1/4 acre and probably 10ft deep easy.

Im trying to decide what I should put in it. I have my .75 blue catfish pond with 12" blue cats. I want to keep them happy next growing season definitly. already put in 100 3-6 CNBG and taking out all the bass I can, 65 taken out to date.

Also I have a 25-30 acre bass lake that I will be intensly trying to manage next spring(taking out enough bass). This lake has an average bass size of 2 lbs but lots of them. Ample 6" bluegill also.


Anyways, I'd like to have a forage fish that is not hard to manage, that is I know they all require a lot of work, but some fish may be easier than others hopefully.

For the Blues, I'd think they would be needing small 1-3" CNBG. FH, Shiners or shad for next year right, due to their small mouth.

For the large lake I'd need probably just adult CNBG if I wanted to add forage to increase bass size and still have a chance for reproduction of the fish I put in if im thinking right.


I have to start somewhere, I guess i'll shut up and see what you think.

I may not be able to provide the right forage for both ponds...

Ive been doing a little searching and I've seen where some put all the above in one pond and then others just put one species of forage fish.

Maybe to keep things simple I might just shoot for CNBG. I don't really want the blue cat pond to get overrun by dumping in a ton of small CNBG from my forage pond but I read where someone would clip the fins of the BG and toss them in so they are easy prey to ensure no reproduction. Is this a good Idea?

I guess if that is an option I clip the fins of the ones going in the Blue cat pond and then drop the rest in the 25 acre lake. Hopefully due to the present coontail problem I have in the 25 acre lake I'll get a fair amount of these make it to get big enough to spawn. If not hey Im just feeding i guess.


does this sound like an idea?

Are you going to be seining the pond or draining it to collect the fish and will you be feeding?

I think I would stock the pond with mature CNBG in the Spring. You could then seine throughout the summer and move the fingerlings over to the Blue Cat pond.

In the Fall you could seine up the rest and put them in the Lake. I would think that you would have some Young of Year fish at 4-5 inches at the end of the growing season. Those fish would then spawn the next year.

I will probably be seining the pond as it will be a little less time consuming for me.

I probably will be feeding to get them to grow faster but not hard core just supplementing them maybe once a day.

I'd like to get some info on what would be a good number mature CNBG to put in.
What am I to expect on the amount of times I will be seinging in a growing season? Also how do you go about estimating how many fish you will produce?

The recommendation is around 40 pairs per acre. Since your pond is around 1/4 acre I would go with 15 pairs so you don't have to worry if you have some mortality.

If the pond has no predators I would think that you could have several thousand fish but I am not a fish farmer.

This sounds good, I think what im gonna do is drain the pond first and ensure there is a nothing in there. Then I think I can run my irrigation unit from my 4 acre pond to fill'r back up.

While the pond is dry, should I mess with the sediment any? the water is always a little murky but not bad probably 12-18" visibility. I don't want to mess anything up if thats possible.

Anyone else have any input on CNBG growing and what to expect?

Chad,a friend of mine is managing his lake for trophy bass.He feeds the BG heavily to get the biomss and proteen up for better forage for the Bass.If you want to see some of the results,his website is CamelotBell.com.Mods,if you can make this a link I would appreciate it.Get ready for a shock if you go look at his fish!!!

Chad, what you can expect is having to seine several times (or more) per year. Keep an eye on the water to assure that they don't overspawn and cause a DO crash.

How do I go about watching that they don't overspawn. Might be a dumb question but I just am wondering what im supposed to look for. If its fish crawling all over themself then yeah thats one thing. But if im supposed to be running test on the water then that is a different ballgame for me.

Water color and clarity are what to watch for. When the water turns pea green and the clarity drops to single digits you are getting a fouled pond. As Bill Cody once said, fish swim in their own toilets.

This assumes that the water isn't muddy or carrying suspended junk.

hmm. I wonder if I should really be concerned with this, it will be my first attempt at a forage pond so I bet im not really gonna know what is good or bad.

I guess I just need to make darn sure I dont put in to many adults.

What is the ballpark growth rate of CNBG?
I'll supplement them with feed but Im trying to get an idea on seining. I'll probably take the majority out at 2" so my Blue cats can eat them.

What is the ballpark growth rate of CNBG?

In a fertile pond with plenty of food a BG/CNBG can reach 2 inches (50mm) on average within 75 days of the spawn that hatched it ( 60 days +- from swim-up).

Chad, I don't want to discourage you from doing it but to tell you that you can't just toss them in, walk away, and come back later. Like all of life, it has to be monitored.

Monitoring visibility is easy. Walk out into the water with something white and poke it down into the water. A white coffee cup on a string comes to mind. When you can no longer identify it, measure the distance. If it starts getting less than 12 to 14 inches your water is getting fouled and dead fish could soon follow. So, prepare to seine every month or so. I cannot count the thousands of BG that I have taken out of it and it can't be over 1/16 acre.

I kill fish several times a year in my really small forage pond because I can't get any pigeons to wade around in the water with me. My Wife did it once and got bug bit. That did it. I almost initiated my 9 year old Grandson last weekend but we ran out of time. Some fry always remain and the cycle starts anew. I have gotten used to the fact that I will have die offs.

The deal is this. If you put some sex crazed forage fish into water, you are building yourself a continuous protein supply for your predators and a continual backache for yourself. Go ahead; it's fun.

By all means i know its gonna be work. I can't even get much help to take out bass from an overpopulated pond! Come on now I thought fishing was fun...

Anyways, Im just trying to get as much info as possible upfront to get me prepared.

Im still a little fuzzy with one thing.

ewest is saying a little over 2 months to get a 2" fish. But Dave as well as other readings is telling me to look at seining once a Month. So technically my fish won't be big enough, for what im after.

so will I need a second pond to put this first batch in (30 day old fish) to grow another inch or so before i chunk them in the catfish pond.

If thats the case i'll also need a third pond to grow my 3"+ fish to go in the large Bass lake.

Am I on the right track?

What I Have to work with.
I have 3 small ponds that have no predators to make use of. two 1/4 acre ponds and ond 1/8 acre pond. Also I have another 1/4 acre pond with bass already present that I can use. I can thin the bass down and do something with it.

DD1

"So, prepare to seine every month or so.
Some fry always remain and the cycle starts anew."

In a typical southern pond there will be several sizes of BG yoy each year. I think DD1 was seining out some and leaving some. If so the small ones left will grow and he would repeat the process again. He was more concerned with low water and fish kills.

I USED to get selective about what I took out and graded them pretty close. However, since I've lost all of my pigeons to help seine, I take out everything I can. If not, they will die.

Chad, you ought to be able to get by with every 60 days once they get 3 or 4 inches long. It's not much trick to seine several thousand when you figure all sizes. I never cull any small ones. There are jillions of them.