Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose What you want but can't get...

Is there a species or type of fish you'd like to stock in your pond but can't because there's no hatchery/fish farm that sells them?

If so, what species are you interested in?

I'll start it off...

I wish freshwater drum were available for pond stocking.

Freshwater drum should top most pond owners lists. Most underrated freshwater fish in my opinion.

Other than that, for different reasons, I'll say peacock bass. If I lived in their temperature range they would be my target fish. Love their fight, appearance, taste and size. It's the species that got me obsessed with fish in the first place.

There are many fish, because of Indiana being a "Great Lakes State" that are hard to source, if not impossible. I know anything can be had if you want to pay the price, but......

For instance, I absolutely cannot find 4"-6" PS here in Indiana (or any size for that matter). Illinois ponds - no problem; Keystone. I have a pond in Illinois that wants them, but even getting Keystone to return a phone call because I'm in Indiana is a task. I understand their postion tho. I'd be leery too, but I purchased Tiger Muskies from them last Fall for that same particular pond, so I'm a repeat customer.

I could use 100-200 fish - small order so getting someone to do the test would be cost prohibitive for a $200-$400 order.

Why drum?

crawfish and albino cats seem a bit more difficult to find

Crayfish are tough to find in Missouri, as well. I haven't found any hatcheries that are selling them, and I've resorted to trapping my own. A couple of hatchery owners said that Missouri may ban all commercial crayfish sales later this year. Wish I knew of a Missouri source for papershells.

Albino CC, on the other hand, seem to be pretty common up here.

Triploid LMB, BCP, BG

TJ, if you are ever down Kansas City way, Raccoon Valley has BCP:

http://raccoonvalleyfisheries.com/Pricing.html

I might as well go for broke and shoot for the moon:

A local hatchery that could, and would, accurately sex their fish and gladly sell me all male BG, and all female YP.

Bonus points if the above-mentioned hatchery would successfully feed train RES, and could readily grow them out to a larger size.

And in the all fantasy realm, a Blue Tilapia subspecies that could over winter in my ponds.

Drum are a native species in most North American waters, but hatcheries don't offer them. They're underrated probably because of their shape. They're assumed to be trash fish. However, they grow bigger and fight harder than LMB, will bite any lure you throw at them and taste comparable to walleye. If that's not a desirable species I don't know what is.

That's interesting. I've tried drum from the Osage River basin several times. They seemed rubbery in texture and only so-so in taste. Maybe I should have done something other than fillet and deep-fry them. How do you prepare them?

No need to have them sex yellow perch if you get them in the early spring. You can easily sex yourself. Same goes for bluegills if you get them large enough. It's it's too early in the year to sex the bluegills put them in a cage until mid May or so. Then it's easy to sex them.

Ahh... A larger pond!!!

I've never tasted good drum also only has it deep fried

That's true, and I usually have a couple spare cages I could use for native BG. However, I wouldn't know one end from the other on a YP..

After I learn to differentiate them, what would I do with the males? I only want perch in one pond.

On a serious note. I would like some SMB but they say i cant have them due to my warm water in the summer! I would love to try a few though.

RC51, if they are growing SMB in TX and AZ, I think you should give them a shot in Ark... SMB can handle water temps over 90 degrees. I kept several in one of my small back yard ponds and water temps were well into the 90's as the ponds are lined with a black liner and the sun radiation boils them. The SMB did fine, kept eating and are still going...

I would like to get a small mouth in my pond here in Florida...
I am a little to far north for the peacock bass though...

Wow! Really??? That is cool. I may try it then. Thanks,

That's the way I've done them the majority of the time. Make sure you get the red meat out of there and I've had better luck when the fillets have been either fresh or immediately put on ice.

RC51 & others regarding SMB in ponds. Keep in mind the smallies struggle in a pond with LMB. Thus they will not come close to realizing their full potential with LMB to bully them. When adding them to LMB ponds, the smallie have to be big enough to avoid predation often 8" to often 12" long. Sunil can shed some light on this topic since he has LMB and some SMB that were stocked as larger individuals in his larger pond. Then the smallies should be supplimently stocked every 2-3 yrs to keep the smallie numbers high enough so you catch one occassionally. The LMB will completely dominate the smallies for forage and prime foraging habitat. In a pond without LMB, smallies will excell. I would love to see someone put smallies in a small FL, AL or GA pond to see how they perform and compare results with those in AZ. I have heard that Hicklings in NY, raise a crop of SMB fingerlings in FL each year. I assume the adult breeders are held or kept in FL???

I have never heard of anyone eating drum. I always thought they would be bony like a carp. Guess the next time I catch one I will give it a try.. As for my pond I wish I could have brown trout. Rc51 Where are you located in Arkansas. I am going to try and get smallmouth from TJ or if he does not have any then I know Raccoon Valley will have them this fall. If your close enough we could run up together.

Mo Bill I am also with you on the papershell crawfish....Cant find them anywhere local. I did find them from a New york farm that claims they can ship them but they will not be ready til june. I'll look up the info and post it. I figured I would try to get some shipped before the ban.

Smithcreek fish farms has papershell crawfish for 30.00 per hundred plus shipping. I believe the web site was smithcreekfishfarms.com

land locked salmon
lake trout
pellet trained paddlefish and sturgeon
striped bass
bowfin
alligator gar
burbot
snakeheads
pirannha
pacu

and some day somehow I am gonna take a shot at growing big redfish up here in Illinois. I think its possible.....