Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose RBS & PS...New member

Hello All. I completed a 7 acre pond in central Georgia, Oct 2008. It was recently stocked with 7,000 CNBG, 1,400 RES, & 14,000 FHM. My plan is to add TFS in April and LMB in June. My goal is to grow trophy bass (7-10lbs) and also have large Sunfish for my children to enjoy catching.

My question is: What advice can you offer on RBS and PS? I have caught numerous RBS while fishing rivers & streams in southern Georgia. I think that they are beautiful fish. While I was looking through the forum, I looked at many pictures. The PS seem to be colorful as well.

I don't want to stock a Sunfish that will slow my pond's potential.

Howdy, 3BD, and welcome to the Forum.

It sounds like you have an excellent plan for your forage base in work.

RBS & PS are indeed very pretty. I have considered one day getting some PS (I manage for big bream up here). It will be interesting to see what the experts think of these two species' effects on a big bass pond.

First off, welcome to Pond Boss! If you haven't already found out there are a lot of great guys on here and we'll try our best to help you reach your goals...

As far as your goals... 7 acres is a lot to work with. You definitely can grow large bass in a pond your size. RBS in me experience are much more common a river fish. I have never found them to be common in ponds and only scattered in more northern rocky lakes. I have had some experience with RBS in small ponds. They mostly seem to not compete well with BG. The BG tend to dominate them. They will reproduce but their numbers will never be high.

As far as PS go, they are no doubt gorgeous! I think they are great in northern ponds where RES won't do well, or even survive. Managing several species of sunfish would be a challenge, but in a 7 acre pond you have a lot of room to work with.

To produce both large (7-10 lbs) LMB and grow large sunfish is a challenge. It is usually one or the other. But having 7 acres to work with will make it easier to do.

I think the RBS are doable but I would skip on the PS...

Thanks Theo & CJBS.

If RBS are dominated by BG, should the RBS be stocked at a higher number? Do you recommend an amount? Also, as far as forage for LMB, will the RBS serve the same purpose as CNBG?

RBS have a lower fecundity than CNBG, as in they only spawn one time in the spring while CNBG will spawn throughout the warm months multiple times. This provides an excellent forage bass for the LMB. Since growing trophy LMB is your main concern, I would not knock your numbers of CNBG back too much in favor of the RSB for that simple reason. You could consider stocking 200-300 RSB to add some flavor to the panfish fishery without any major affect in my opinion.

Feeding your sunfish is also another option to consider if you aren't... Feeding will increase your sunfish growth rates and allow them to reproduce with that much more vigor.

I would consider holding off on stocking the LMB until the fall. Depending on the size sunfish you stock, this should allow them to get a few spawns in before being preyed on by the LMB. It will also allow the FHM to build their numbers to allow the LMB to prey on them almost exclusively until their numbers are depleted. TFS will also benefit from having a spawning season under their belt before LMB are thrown into the mix.

In spring of '10 I would consider stocking tilapia as well. Many of the pondmeisters on here have had good luck with tilapia, in that they reproduce fast giving the bass a second food source taking pressure off the sunfish.

Have you put thought into what variety of LMB you are going to stock? Northern, Florida, F1? Since it is trophy bass you are looking for, I would consider some pure Florida, but F1's can be considered and even a percentage of northern as well. I would recommend stocking 50 LMB per acre this fall. That would be 350 LMB this fall. Perhaps 150 Florida, 150 F1 and 50 northern. Then next fall I would stock another 350 LMB in the same numbers. I am sure others on here may have their opinion as to what numbers to stock...

Take some pics of your pond and your progress, we love pics on here! Good luck...

Hello 3B and welcome to Pond Boss. RBS huh? Man I had to go to the archives for that one, I don't recall anyone ever mentioning them before (of course with my short term memory there could have been an entire thread on them the day before yesterday and I'd probably have forgotten by now). Anyhoo, thanks for posting we're glad you found us. And post some photos we likey photos.

I am currently feeding Purina Aqua Max 4000, because it is smaller (for fingerlings) and what was locally available at the time. The price is $24 / 50lbs.

I have been reading some threads on which LMB to stock. I haven't made a final decision. I think that I'm like most; I want trophy bass, which would lead me to Florida's, but also don't want the fishing to be extremely difficult.

About the tilapia, it is my understanding that it is currently illegal to stock tilapia in Georgia. Is this true?

How do I upload photo's? Can I not just attach them to a post? Is there a thread that addresses this?

If I were after big bass down South, I would stock F1s or more likely a mix of Northerns, Floridas, and F1s.

I recall Greg Grimes stating several times that Tilapia are not legal in GA.

See the Archive thread on posting photos.

I just don't understand why so many fish agencies around the country have banned tilapia. About the only place they will survive winters in soouth FL, right along the Gulf and the south western part of the country... What is the big worry about, they die every fall!

Just trying a photo from October 7, 2008.

Does the photo size need to be reduced???

If I want to post some pic's, should I start a new thread under Pond Construction?

A width of 640 to 720 pixels probably works best for most forum members.

I would recommend a new thread to go with the new intended content.