Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Did I do something stupid?

Ok, so I stocked
25 WE
20 BC
and
60 Perch

In a 0.6 acre pond last week. The formula works well for our area, the perch keep the BC in check since the perch will raid nests etc. That is apparently why BC do not pose an over-population problem around here as the perch thrive and the BC have a lot of trouble keeping up.

So on to the real problem: The fish supplier's ponds have a PH between 6.8 and 7.0, my pond measured 8.4 this morning. I am uncertain if I gave my fish enough time to acclimate for this PH shift when I put them in :-(. I only gave them about 10 minutes, and mostly for the few degrees of temperature shift, being a moron about the PH shift.

I have only seen one BC floater mixed in with the fall leaves I have been scooping out, but I worry that the dead ones are sinkers. I have seen no sign of any fish but the FHM in huge schools. Should I be seeing more floaters, or will they sink?

Feeling mighty bad about this, after working with aquariums for years, I should know better. Excitement took over...
What are my chances that my fish will be OK? Water temp about 55F right now and dropping.

-Mark

I would think your fine.. What are perch to you Yellow perch? What was the sizes of the fish?

All of the fish were in the 4-6 inch range, and yes, YP (I couldn't remember the acronym).

I am willing to be I am not seeing them as they are stressed and hovering near the bottom in the dark.

Supposedly the WE will be near the shore at night, so you can shine a flashlight into the water and see their eyes reflecting. I am hoping that happens at some point as that is pretty cool. Past two nights, nothing.

I'll be real interested to see how this combination works out. YP never seem to help control BC further south, but maybe things are different further north.

So am I, but I also have the strange problem for my area of having a high PH compared to many ponds around me. It will be interesting to see what happens. I decided to go with BC rather than Green Sunfish as I have heard equally difficult problems with them also, though they make better forage for top predators due to less spines.

Who knows, sometimes you just have to give it a try and hope for the best. For me I wanted to stock fish that I have never caught before (except for the YP).

I am still hoping for rain one of these days that may raise up the pond level a bit. Since May, we have had no runoff rains.

I think you'll have a problem, but it'll be because of the crappie and not pH......

Please prove me wrong!

I'f you have low alaklynity, your water Ph can change several points throughout the day...If water Ph swings considerably, adding Ag Lime will help stabilize it.

The wide Ph and temperature differences in supplier/destination waters are the reason fish are tempered and acclimated before being released.

I'm with esshup...one successful spawn, and crappie are gonna overwhelm a small BOW.

(Here I am on another sleepless morning)
My alkalinity is actually very high. I could sell my soil as ag lime as my bottom "clay" is actually pulverized limestone from glaciers grinding up the monstrous limestone deposits to my north. I forget the actual number it is, but well into the hundreds. No problem with acid rain here, or PH swings.

Yeah, I worry about the BC, but I have spoken now with several people around me with ponds, and most have tried BC at one time only to have them fade away after a few years. All of them have bass-heavy ponds, so my WE pond may be different.

The owner of FingerLakes Aquaculture and I spoke at length about the BC issue, and he is a retired NY DEC fish guy. He is frustrated by his BC pond not producing enough for demand and does not know of anyone locally that has an over-population issue. He also talks enviously about ponds down south that have the very problem he wants. I also convinced him if I have a problem with them, he can harvest some from me to thin the herds. His shop is only 20 miles from us, so he is accommodating to that idea, but convinced I wont be calling any time soon. It would be tough for him to swallow the $2K testing costs in any case, so even if I do get swamped with the little buggers, I doubt he would help.

What is frustrating is I hear the same thing around me about Pumpkin Seeds, Green Sunfish, Bluegill, but not Black Crappie. Which to choose? I really wanted pumpkin seed due to their looks, but everyone warned me around here of how they take over, and are poor forage, etc. BC are the best eating of the bunch so I am told, so I went with it.

I may be making a mistake, but local recommendations do carry some weight. My neighbor with a pond of the exact same water type has a really bad Pumpkin Seed problem and jumped up and down when I mentioned them. It is also hard to argue with a DEC fish guy that runs his own pond shop simply for the love of it.

Also, one last point (hope) he says my WE formula has had reasonable success in our area, and is a great alternative to a bass pond. It also leaves a lot more frogs and toads to do their business, though the tads will get eaten in any case. I just have to re-stock the WE every so often.

http://www.fingerlakesaquaculture.com/Index.html

Ag lime will peak out at Ph 8.2...very healthy for fish...

Rex you make it too the conference?

He's here.

So far only one BC floater, not other deadites floating around or in evidence. I am hopeful they made the transition well.

One thing for certain is they have plenty of minnow forage. Cloud after cloud of FHM working their way around the pond in a slow dance of eating. Clarity is amazing right now, seeing 4-5 feet straight down. Still no sign of the new fish, but their coloration is such that I am probably just having a hard time spotting them.

BGK,
Not only was he there, he caught the second biggest bass (SMB) in the tournament at 2.95 lbs.

Hey y'all,

I am not sure where to post this but chose this in an effort to "not do something stupid".

I have a large pond (4.6 acre) which is in it's second year. Got the state stocking program of BG last year (so small they could have been mistaken for insects when put in but have caught some recently about 5-6"). The state supplied LMB and CC this Spring which were again pretty small but bigger than the BG.

The local hatcheries are now doing there Fall run here and I was considering adding some other fish but do not want them to dine on the LMB and CC. The hatchery fish I have seen locally are significantly bigger than the state fish (but not monsters).

Ultimately I am considering adding Walleye, RES, YP. I am not sure of their feeding habits but thought the Walleye would pose the greatest risk to the LMB and BG, followed by YP and then the RES.

As a novice I'm not sure whether to wait to stock all 'til next year, add just RES, or RES/YP or what??? There is an abundance of FHM, tadpoles,etc. it appears. Thanks for your suggestions.

Frogboy in your situation - Get the RES and YP in ASAP before the LMB get to 5"-7". For best WE results add any walleye (usually 6"-8") before the LMB are 12"-14". Thereafter the larger the stocker WE are the better the chances of survival.

And one more thing Frogboy,,, Welcome to Pond Boss

Thanks for the good advice, I will continue on with the RES and YP this year (Friday) and wait on the WE. I have lurked the site for quite a while and am always impressed with the knowledge base and generosity of the members.

As a follow-up, I have only seen the one floater. I am assuming the rest survived as I see no signs of them except one I caught sneaking around some plants the other night and it took off like a shot.

I finally found a moment to myself today where I lay down on the dock and watched the critters pass underneath. There are so many FHM of all age classes in my pond that I can hardly believe it only took 6 months to get that many! Needless to say I think my new introductions are fat and happy.

The proof will be in a couple years...

Reviving this ancient thread, so information is captured in one spot.

So my BC somehow on their diminutive size this spring had some offspring already. It is a bit alarming. Where are the fish police when you need them? A little too much underage drinking in my pond apparently.

Anyhow, I am seeing a few schools of 50 or so 1-2" BC making their way around the pond vacuuming up any FHM minnow babies that make the mistake of trying to exist. I am now concerned about any perch babies this coming spring. I have left the curly-leafed pond weed around for cover for any YP babies in the spring, so I think that may work.

What I am wondering is if I use a throw net to try and bag some of these schooling BC to thin the herds a bit to give the YP a chance to keep up the numbers? Or should I let the WE (which are at the 9" or so range) deal with the BC over the winter? My guess is the BC are already getting a bit large for the WE to handle. The baby BC are growing FAST.

I used to be really good at casting the throw nets to catch small fish, I had an excellent bait net that is long since rotted out. Where is a good source for a new one of these?

Thanks for any ideas.

Can you catch BC in a Fyke net?

Cast nets are kinda fun, and you can haul a bunch out with one.

I would think, maybe some sort of container on the side so you can pick out the fish you want to keep.

Any bait and tackle shop should have one. Walmart, around the corner from me has a few.


When I first saw the title of this thread today. It immediately reminded me of a former neighbor who was playing John Wayne, while sauced, and shoved a loaded .357 Mag down the front of his pants. He really did shoot himself in the foot, which was clearly evident, but something else slowed the bullet down

A couple of interesting tidbits this weekend...

First off I found my old cast net! The net was in much butter shape than I thought, in fact it in darned near perfect. Now if I can only remember how to toss it! It is a screwy contraption with 4 steel rods that collapse around a small central disk held by rope. No clue yet, gonna google it.

Another fun one is i have some encouraging news from some nice folks with a pond down the street from us I finally got to meet. They have a bass heavy pond with YP, SMB, and BC. Turns out after 10 years it has become bass dominant, and the BC are rare but huge. Same with the perch. They claim they have caught some monster perch approaching 15 inches, they are just uncommon. That is a big perch!

Anyhow, i dropped off some PB magazines, hopefully they will chime in here with some good info on BC in our area.

My FHM finally pulled a spawn, lots of little ones around.

Pretty sure I know where my cast net is. (I think) 98' vintage model. Nylon. Has lead weights around the perimeter.

Folding it properly for a cast is a trick, which takes some dedicated practice!

I think I have created every geometric pattern known to man, and fractal image processors, learning how to toss this thing.

A perfect cast when it hit the water was quite rare, but effective!

YP are starting to move in closer to the pier's. Maybe some good fishing coming up this fall.

I still haven't mastered it. 99% of the time I end up hitting the water with the cast net looking like a folded taco.

It is a trick, and like you said, 1 out of 100 may be decent cast's.

Wind speed will really screw up your most patient and best efforts.

They are fun tho, and the target is to get a full opening on the net before it hit's water.

Ever scoop up Alewives with a cast net? Those things die before they are out of the water. Used mostly for cut bait, but one scoop could be a bunch, and your handing them out to everyone who may be interested.