Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Ready to stock?

Hello all. I beleive I am finally ready to stock my 1/4 acre pond. I have structure in place and is filling as we speak. I would like to eventually have 3-4lb LMB. Also planned on stocking CC and BG. My question is what order do I stock the fish. I have a freind with a pond that is overrun with 6" LMB and another pond with a ton of 2"-4" BG. He has given me permisson to take all I want. Thanks.

Definitely BG first. I'd concentrate on moving bigger BG from the stunted BG pond for now. If you get a late spawn out of them (likely IMHO that stinted 4" BG will be able to do that), then 6" LMB should have plenty to eat if you transfer them into your pond in a couple months.

What kind of numbers are you contemplating?

likely IMHO that stinted 4" BG will be able to do that

What is IMHO? I have already put in about a hundred 1"-3" BG. What do you recoommend?

Is there something I can feed to BG, and how long will it take for a 2" BG to grow up? How many 4"-6" BG should I put in along with the other smaller ones and how long do I wait to stock CC.

In My Humble Opinion = What I think, but don't sue me if I'm wrong; your mileage may vary.

100 stocked so far = 400 /acre.

Total stocking for fingerling BG usually ranges from 500/acre (Northern rate) to 1000/acre (Southern rate, especially if concentrating on LMB growth). So you have not exceeded commonly recommended levels of initial BG yet.

While your current 1"-3" BG grow, I'd concentrate on catching and sorting the larger BG available from your neighbor's pond. I think I'd add 30 to 50 of those.

If in your situation, my LMB stocking plan timing would depend on when you get a BG spawn. If the transferred BG don't spawn this year, any LMB you transfer will be trying to live on the smallest BG you are putting in - rough on both you and the bass.

How do I now when they spawn and what are some things I can do to ensure they do spawn?

Smhog,

Howdy again. Just wanted to make a comment about the expectations for 3-4 pound LMB in a 1/4 acre pond. I've had several ponds that size over the years and you can certainly raise a few LMB to that size, even larger, but don't expect to have large numbers of them. The half-dozen or so that you will be able to raise to that size at any given time, can easily become conditioned to artificial lure and flys, making catching them very difficult.

Please don't take this as a negative on your plans. I just wanted to provide some inputs so that your expectations are not overly high and you experience disappointment as a result. I experienced that kind of disappointment a number of years ago on one of my first ponds and wished at the time that someone would have told me what to expect.

You can have the 3-4 pound LMB and even larger in a 1/4 acre pond, but there won't be many of them and you will have to aggressively remove all small LMB or you may get the same result as your neighbor. Hope this helps.

Thanks friend. You all have been a huge help. I hope to share this pond with church groups, and local kids so worst case they can catch small LMB and BG. They'll still have a blast! What is the best thing to feed BG, and what is a mud bottom good for them to spawn, Ive seen there "hole" in other ponds.

For raising fat BG, I use a high protein feed(45%) made and sold by Rangen. Purina Game Fish Chow is a good general purpose fish food with about 32% protein.

As long as you get quality fish food at around the 32% protein level, those BG will really take off. Don't make the mistake of using dog food or other food not formulated for fish. You may save a couple of bucks, but your fish will suffer less growth.

p.s. terrific planned use of the pond! My compliments to you.

p.s.s. BG will spawn in just about anything, in my experience. Some folks use gravel beds to help increase spwaning, but I personally have never seen a need for that in my area. Around here, they make the nests everywhere and spawn profusely without any help from me.

Thanks Meadowlark and Theo! I really, really appreciate all the advice. Have a great weekend.