Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Help me decide

First post, and I would like to say thank you to the people on this forum for all of the information that is here.

During the drought of 2011 we renovated our existing 1 acre pond that was originally constructed in the 50's. We cleaned about 4' of sediment out of it and cleaned up all of the banks.

May 31 we added 10lbs of FHM, 100 red ear, and 100 HBG. I just went out and caught a few of the bream and they are about 4" and looking good. Also, my dad has been catching other bream from a neighbors lake and throwing them in there. He has probably added 50-75 various bream.

My dilemma is what to stock next spring, LMB, channel catfish, or crappie. It will only be one of the mentioned fish. So help me decide.

The primary function of the pond it just for recreation.

Hey Scott

Welcome to the PBF! Your stock rate seems a little low for LMB? Neither red ear or HBG will keep up with enough little ones to keep your LMB full at least I don't think they will. They just don't spawn enough like regular BG do. So with that said I may go with the CC. Everyone you talk to will tell you don't do crappie in that small of a pond. They will just flat take it over and you will have a bunch of 5 inch crappie. So don't go that route. Lets see what others have to say, but if you going to go with LMB you need more of a forage base. 10lbs of fathead minnows is not anything to LMB. They will be gone in a year or so. That's just my 2 cents. Hold on for some expert advise.

A lot of it depends on what kind of "various bream" were stocked from the neighbor's pond. If a fair number were adult pure BG, then you should have a good forage base established next year to support the stocking of LMB. Just realize managing a LMB/BG fishery in a 1 acre pond can be challenging to keep in balance. If it was me, I would stock LMB and focus on a quality bream/sunfish pond with your LMB running 8"-14" in size. No reason you cannot add a few CC as a bonus fish to catch and/or for the table as well.

Thanks for the reply CJ. The lake that the other bream were caught out of has a creek running through it, the ones that he put in our pond were not adult fish they ranged from 4-6". I think we will try to concentrate on the quality sunfish and add a few LMB and see where that takes us.

I grew up on this little pond and can remember catching numerous bass and catfish all my life. I'm fairly certain that the pond was never "stocked" with fish. We would throw a few channel catfish in there if they were still alive in the livewell when when we came home from a day on the lake.

Thanks RC. It looks like I need a lot more forage base before adding the LMB. That won't be a problem, I don't want to rush it. Is it too late in the year to add more BG?

My general rule is if I'm mowing, it's not to late or to early. Also, if you get behind on forage, it's hard to catch up.

Don't know what size pond you have, but CNBG prices are a little high right now so you may have to decide how you want to spend your investment. Fewer bigger fish, or more small ones. If there's no predators in your water, I'd probably go with more small CNBG.

You can transfer more BG from your neighor's pond if you're sure they are in fact BG. 4"-6" may not be full grown but are big enough to reproduce. I suspect the ones you have stocked are having babies as we type...

cj is right. if your putting in actual BG from your buddies pond you may be ok. 4 to 6 inch will grow pretty fast and have a lot of little ones too. As Bob lusk always says, The BG are the backbone for fish forage. i too have a 1 acre pond. i have come to the realization that i can grow some pretty nice CNBG and RES and have some ok size bass. i now after 3 years am starting to get 8 inch bg and 9 inch res. the biggest lmb i have caught out of my pond has been 18 inches. most are around the 14 inch or smaller range like Cj said but they are still fun to catch. good luck and keep us us posted.

I know some of the BG are breeding, there are beds in the shallows on both ends of the pond. I'm going to continue to add more BG and wait on the bass and or channel cats. Thanks for all of the responses.

If the pond that your Dad is getting the fish from has a stream flowing into it, the "bluegills" might be green sunfish too.....

When you said various BG, what species were bucket stocked?

100 hybrid bluegill and 100 red ear perch, along with 10lbs of FHM.

I caught a few of the stocked HBG and red ear yesterday, they are about 4" long now.

Did you mean various sizes or species? (in regargs to what is in red)

I would assume that they were all bluegill but I can't say that with 100% confidence. None over 6".