Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Neighbor's Pond

My neighbor said that I could use his pond, and I thought of trying to raise some FHM in there. Here's the pics. I thought the pond was 40'x60', but the laser rangefinder says 39' x 126'. I think right now it's about 2'-3' deep. In the Spring, it will flood it's banks and go into the surrounding woods. The last pic is looking at my pond from his. His pond, once the water gets almost to the "flood the woods" stage, flows into my pond. (that's the way the water flows thru the woods and I didn't want to disrupt that when I renovated my pond).

Looking from West to East:


Looking across the width of the pond (looking South):


Looking West/NW to my pond:


I don't plan on clearing out any of the trees. I believe the bottom of the pond is smooth so it would be easy to seine, I just have all the leaves to deal with.

What do you think??

FHM may not over winter in the pond but stocking some breeders after ice out should work...

If it's going to flood into your pond, it may as well flood in some forage with it.

CJ:

That's what I was thinking. I'd let them do their bunny thing all summer long and seine them out in the Fall. They'd help control the mosquito population as well. txelen: They'd flood into the pond, but they'd be swimming into all the timber behind the house if the water went up after my pond was full. I don't think that would be a bad thing. I might throw some in there just for fun to se if they overwinter.

See if you can find some wild sources for central mudminnows or topminnows. They make excellent forage and should do better in a smaller BOW like that. The FHM and them should get along well also.

Scott, I think this would be a perfect place for some of your crawdads. Without heavy predation, you should wind up with an ongoing source of protein for your pond. They will migrate somewhat and you can seine. When it gets cold and when it starts to dry up in the summer, they will burrow down and re-emerge when it rains and fills up again.

I wonder how they would coexist with some FHM.

What about using that pond for your tilapia, instead of the FHM? If you are not planning on the forage overwintering anyways, it seems that you would get more productivity by using tilapia. I like Dave's idea about using it for the crayfish, too.

Good suggestions guys! I think I'll try both in there next summer, along with some of the FHM and I'll try to source the wild minnows.

Scott - good thinking on using this available BOW for a forage pond - dimensions look ideal and I think the crawfish and minnow ideas are great. You can set minnow traps or seine whenever you want to transport. I don't know about the spawning habitat needed for the top minnow, etc. species Travis suggested, but don't forget some pallets or tires for the FHM under which to spawn. If the water level is going to fluctuate I recommend using pallets with it staked in the middle allowing it to rise and fall with the water level.