Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Releasing fathead minnows through the Ice??

So my pond has now filled and in the spring I am planning on stocking the pond with BG, BGH, Shell Crackers, CC, LMB,and possibly some pearch. I have been doing some reading on here and the best I can tell that as soon as the ice is off I can start putting fish in there. What I was thinking about doing now that the ice is still on the pond is releasing fathead minnows into the pond through Ice auger holes? Didnt come across anything thing like this in my readings? Any thoughts on this? pros? cons? good idea? bad idea? I would like to know. will try to post pics of the pond all filled up.

Not much point to releasing FHM while a new pond is ice covered unless you can not get the minnows after ice out. Minnows will have less chance of being stressed and dying if released when pond has open water, temperatures are warmer, and more food is available for them to recover from transplant stress/shock. I suggest you wait until the surface water temps are 50-60F and invertebrate foods for small fish are increasing at a rapid rate. Minnows can then fatten up for an bountiful spawning season.

Unless you got the fish for free and you KNOW they are true fathead minnows, you would gain nothing by stocking them before ice-out.

Thanks for the info BC and RM I appreciate it. I figured spring would be the best time just was looking for somthing to do down there this weekend but i wanted to check with pond boss crew to see the pros and cons of doing it. The FHM are not free they run 20$ a thousand at the bait shop this time a year.

Roadjoker, I completely understand you getting antsy. Wanting to just do something. Have to established all the structure you want? Winter can be a great time to place structure. Set what you want on the ice, almost exactly where you want it. There's a great past article about it in Pond Boss magazine.

Rdjoker - how big and deep is the pond? How much lake effect show you have on the ice? Something to think about: Have you considered perch and walleye or HSB? Smallmouth bass will also do well in the pond if no largemouth are present. No one has discussed or tried hybrid BG and smallmouth. You could be the first. IF that did not work out, pond could be converted to BG-LMB fishery pretty easily. Smallies and HBG have a hard time competing with BG & LMB.

RJ22, be very careful procurring your FHM from a bait shop. There are often some very unwanted species mixed in with them. Depending on your goals, certain species can really make a mess. Particularly if stocked early with your forage fish before the predators are established. My best advice is know what FHM or other fish you WANT look like and hand sort... Or, be very confident in the source of your fish.

RoadJoker, I completely lament CJ's cautioning about using a bait shop for any fish sourcing! Very risky stuff!!! Not to mention the price you mentioned is more than double what any reputable and trustworth source would supply.

I have delivered fish to a couple people near you that have issues arise from using some of the bait houses in your area.

It is not that many bait shops intentionally sell trash fish with what they advertise selling. The goal of the fish they sell is to be bait, and eaten shortly, a bait shop has no reason to care if some fish are other species you may not want....YOUR goal is for the fish to reproduce and become you forage base...Use a source that is supplying fish intended for your needs.

Omaha, The structure is in place, did this while the pond was empty. I made 18 of the home made porcupine fish attrators using bowling balls and pvc electrical conduit, they worked out great. made 5, minnow huts out of building brick with the 3 holes in them( sorta looked like little castles. I also did 6 concrete block towers, and also have about 8 PVC trees. and a couple of rock and brick piles. wanted to use stuff that would last forever for structure. i also put 12 ton of river stone in the 1 corner for spawning bed area.

Man, that sounds awesome! Pictures? Please.

BC, The pond is base ball diamond shaped and 3/4 of an acre and is 15 deep in the middle. wanted to go 1 acre but started raining the last day and had to quit. The two staright sides have steep bank walls with a shelf half way down and the curved section has rolling slope that goes down to the bottom about 25 ft out. Here is a link to the new member page when I posted pictures. I never thought about the HSB or SB? Might be an idea? The pond is loacted down in cumberland ohio whisch is 15 minutes south of cambridge. no lake effect but do have about 4 inches of snow on 6 inches of ice.
http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=238755#Post238755

Ohmaha, I will try to get pics up next week. left my camera at my cabin 3 weekends in a row. but there is a link in the last post with pics from August when I dug it.

I just saw pics from the New Member thread you posted. Very nice!

Thanks CJ and Rain Man, can any one recomend a good fish hatchery to purchase my fish from here in ohio? My cabin is located 2 hours south of Clevland OH, 2 hours east of Columbus OH, 1 hour north of Marrieta, OH, and 1 hor to the west of Wheeling WV. any recomendations would be great.

Omaha thanks, I have done some more work since then. gettin ready to build the dock first week in febuary. Going to build it on the on the ice so when it melts she will be sitting right where she needs to be!

RJ22, hopefully Bill Cody will check in on this thread. He is very familiar with quality hatcheries in OH. Any advice he gives, take it and run... As far as managing private ponds in OH goes, Bill probably knows more than anyone.

Sounds great CJ, thats whats great about Pond Boss. so much information in 1 place. The magazine and the mebers are great. appreciate all the info.

If you want to pick up the fish yourself, check out Fenders Fish Hatchery Baltic, OH near Charm and New Bedford. They are the largest fish farm in OH. This is about the only fish farm in OH where one can buy numerous species of larger adult fish. Good, honest people. They also sell crayfish, and in fall, some hard to find fish such as large redear sunfish(6"-10"), large blk crappie, large YP, juvenile walleye, pike, fingerling SMB, some trout, and all sizes of LMB, but no golden shiners, and not many of their fish are pellet trained. PM me if you need contact information for them. There are a few other eastern OH fish farms but they do not handle a wide variety of fish species, mostly BG, LMB or speciality fish, such as pellet trained YP. Below is an ODNR ODW link to Ohio Fish Propogators. Note the list does not mention all fish species sold by each hatchery - only those suggested by the ODNR.
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/FishingS...39/Default.aspx

BC, thanks for the info. My wife, daughter, and I actully visted them in late september. Mr. fender who I think said was 84 took us on a tour of there property and and hatcheryy. great guy! this is who I was planning on getting my fish from. But I never did ask him about minnows. I just pulled up his web site and do see he offers fat head minows for 40$ per thousand. We have alot of memorys from that day, my daughter was 11 months old at the time and was calling Mr. Fenders Llamas dogs. Mr. Fender said those are some of the biggeset dogs I have seen lol. my wife and here were also amazed when he started throwing food in his 1/2 acre koi pond by his house. I was shocked that he went out of his way to do all that for us that day. Im glad to here you recomend them.