Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose 3 Acre Dug Pond Question

My father just recently finished digging a 3 Acre pond and should be stocking in the next couple of weeks. I have read the State Pond management pdf for Louisiana and read a ton of threads. I noticed some conflciting info in some places so I thought I would run the plan by the big brains here to see if we are missing anything or have a bad plan.

Background:
3 Acre Dug Pond
Water source is a well
No runoff into pond
Clay Bottom
6' avg depth, several shallows and 14' deep clean out
Fish will be fed and pond fertilized

Plan:
Initial Stock 20 Dec
3400 CNBG
600 RES
4000 FHM

Second Stock
200 LMB After Spawn/ Late Spring

1. I know the book says 1000 bream per acre for a fertilized pond. Is 1200 per acre too much?

2. What will the fish eat? The pond is brand new with water froma well. We put 20 bales of hay in the pond before filling, but what are the fingerlings going to eat?

3. I read in another thread that stocking CNBG before bass like this will cause the BG to be too numerous and stunted. I believe he was talking about in a northern pond but will this hold true in the south?

4.We are hoping for big LMB with healthy CNBG for the kids. Are Big CNBG and big LMB Mutually exclusive?


Thanks again. I hope I did not ask too many repeat questions and am thankful for any help. Please let me know if there as any additional info I can provide.

The FHM will readily take to catfish pellets, both sinking and floating. I know this from experience. Many of my BG did also (do not know if they all did or just some).

The stocking recommendations I will defer to someone who actually knows something.

Are you planning on placing any riprap in the pond, particularly in the shallows? I had great results with snails after I built a little jetty of broken concrete in my smaller, mature pond. The snails seemed to raise well there, and the RES loved them.

What are your/your father's goals for the pond? Large LMB?

If so, then go with 2000 CNBG/acre if possible.

Goals! I knew I forgot something. We are hoping for big LMB with healthy CNBG for the kids. Ill update the original post. Are big CNBG and big LMBs mutually exclusive?

We have tons of broken concrete and other structure around the pond. We felled some large trees and have them in there as well. I will post some pics later.

Generally, yes. To get big BG you want lots of (stunted) LMB to remove competition for the big guys. To get big LMB you want to have a pond teeming with smaller BG and low numbers of LMB lurking in the shadows.

It's really about how you want to distribute your biomass.