Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Help stocking lake!

So were finally redoing our dam (located in Brantley,AL) and as long as it holds up were goin to need to stock it before it gets to hot. Our lake is going to be a total of 18-20acres and deepest parts will be 15-18ft deep. Lots of holes and structure. There is grass and trees and weeds that grew in there since the dam broke a few years ago. Our goal is to potentially to be able to have bass that reach 8-10lbs in the future but also have a very good BG fishery as well as a place to gig frogs. The creek that runs through this place already has CC that come down it and some shad and other small fish. Last time we fixed the dam we stocked it with 27000 bream and 2000 bass and we did FHM as well but Im not sure how many of those. My question to you guys is what would your plan of attack be on this lake? I know I probably have info missing so ask away.

first youl need to stock with forage fish before they spawn this spring blue gill bream and minnows. then next summer it would be time to stock your predator fish. thats if you want realy big bass but if you want to be fishing this summer i would think you could just put in fewer bass. not sure on the stocking rates though. anyone else know

Tyler:

With that creek going into it, you'll probably have unwanted fish species in there. Do you know where the creek comes from (do any other ponds/lakes overflow into it)? Shad (do you know what species they are?) aren't a creek fish.

Take a look at this thread.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=323059&gonew=1#UNREAD

He wants a trophy LMB pond, but I think by bumping up the LMB stocking ratios a bit to 75/ac I think it'd be a good plan for your pond.

After looking at pictures I believe they were golden shiners not shad.

Heres a pic of the dam. I think....

Hi Tyler0421, good luck on the great lake. Since you have been working your lake for some time you probably have a idea on stocking,but I have been reading on PB for several months and one thing that popped into my mind when esshup stated the creek issue(s)is maybe you could have a pre pond/brood pond that the creek would run into first, with a filtering net/screen/pit trap or something to stop or limit the influx of possible unwanted fish into your main lake. As well you could seine the brood pond with some ease and raise FH/CNBG and Shiners etc. IMHO

I have noticed several of the Pond bossers have a pond/lakes main bodies and brood pond(s), I wish I had.

One thing for sure, esshup will not steer you wrong.I agree with small pond too. I am still trying to play catch up because I wanted everything "Right Now".

If you have time, please keep us up to date on your plan(s).

Tyler0421,

Did you dry the pond out totally before it started refilling or did it keep some water (and fish) in it? If so, did you poison out any fish that were left behind? That will determine as much as anything what you should do in regards to stocking. Another important question would be, are you going to maintain a fertilization program. If you are, you may have to consider adding some agricultural lime to it if your soil is acidic.

-HH

This is a simple answer, and believe me, there are no simple answers when dealing with ponds.

But, as a general rule of thumb, if you are wanting to grow trophy LMB, stock 1500 - 2000 CNBG (since you are in Florida), 500 RES and 50-75 LMB per acre. I'd make sure that there is an established GSH population too.

Update!

The dam is holding after a year of a quite of bit of rain. We put a couple hundred CNBG an a hundred or so bass that we caught out of a neighbors pond that is trying to thin out his pond. Funds are tight but now that the dam is holding strong we plan to add some fish this year. I have a friend that is allowing us to come in and seine some RES out of his pond and I plan on making a brood pond (Ill start another thread). Stocking this pond the way it should be doesn't look like its going to happen due to funds. I plan on taking the brood pond and raising FHM in it to release in to the pond every year as well as shrimp. I believe I have a supplier for shrimp down here. I think if I can get forage fish established this year or next and then do a true stocking after looking at things at that point then we should be fine. Feel free to give me thoughts on suggestions that we could due with limited funds for this project.

Tyler, if you want a lake with large bass in it (you said 8-10 pounds) then you should keep the bass to coppernose stocking ratio 1 bass to every 40 coppernose. If you stock more bass than that, you'll most likely end up with a largemouth stunted lake.

We plan on adding more CNBG this summer from the neighbors pond again. They are trying to get their ponds in balance and we are helping with it as well as "free" stock for our pond. There is also shiners that have come into this pond naturally from upstream from one of the creeks that feed this pond as well as the RES that we will be adding this year. Bass in the 8-10 range was more of hopes when we planned on stocking it right( or when we did stock it the first time). At this point we just want a balanced "fishable" pond really.

Tyler, unless the creek comes from another pond or lake, I'm not sure that they are "shiners" (if you mean Golden Shiners) as they aren't creek fish.

If you have creeks that feed the pond, then here's hoping that you don't get fish in there that you don't want (carp, gar, etc.).

There is actually three "creeks" that feed this pond one comes from a pond about a mile away another is a creek that runs from miles away and the other comes out of the ground on the property. I'm positive we will get fish we do not want in there but we will just do everything we can to reduce the population of them.The only one that we could actually stop things from entering would be the one from the spring which is where we plan on making the forage brood pond.

Im tried to find the pic I had of the shiner but I can't. I will try to get another of one of them when I get back up there. I'm almost positive they were golden shiners though. Next time Im up there I will try to bring a trap and set it and see what gets in there.
Whats the best food to set the trap with for smaller fish like shad or shiners or FHM or any other smaller fish?

Dry dog or cat feed or wheat bread. Put it in a bait container in the trap, like an onion sack or a mesh bait box.

Heres a few pictures. One is of the middle of it and one is the dam. Thats my wife and dog in the middle of it for size comparison.

If I read correctly you have already put some bluegill and bass in the lake. If so, I would either open the drain (if equipped) and let all of the water out and start over with stocking forage only, or I would gather up all available budget funds and manpower quickly and start getting as many CNBG in the water now that I could manage.

-HH

Thats the plan. In the next few weeks we will be adding CNBG and RES as well as FHM and GSH. I have access to a place I can catch paper shells as well.

You might want to double check the type of crayfish you are catching in FL. I doubt they (papershell) are found in FL according to a couple of distribution records.
http://nas.er.usgs.gov/taxgroup/crustaceans/maps/or_immunis.gif
http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=210

All about Papershell crayfish aka calico crayfish Orconectes immunis:
http://eol.org/pages/346649/details#physical_description

http://ninnescahlife.wichita.edu/node/671

Here is a list of the crayfish that you are likely to encounter in Florida - actually quite a few compared to many states. Technically no species of the entire crayfish genus Orconectes has ever been collected in Florida.
http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/crayfish/country_pages/state_pages/florida.htm

This is actually in Alabama but still, Clearly they are not paper shells. Hmmm, they look very similar to them. I'll have to take a picture when we get them. A friend of mine used to be in the hatchery business and has since gotten out so he is allowing us to come in and get what we want of what he has left in some of the ponds so we are taking advantage of that. I know he has a bunch of crawfish all over that place but I never asked him what species it was. I just assumed the were since I have seen them on here and they look similar.

Below is a link the crayfish that are reported from Alabama. Papershells do exist in AL. There are 16 species of Orconectes in AL. Very interesting that no Orconectes reported from the nearby state of FL. A few species are pretty similar, and to the untrained, numerous species appear similar to papershells -calicos. Three 'easy to see' features to recognize papershells (calico) are shape of the areola, shape of the rostrum and features of the dactyl (movable finger of the claw). Get close up pics of each of those.

http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/crayfish/country_pages/state_pages/alabama.htm

Whatever species are living in his ponds will be able to live in your pond providing the bass don't eat all of them. Crayfish have a hard time thriving in bass 'heavy' ponds.

To get the bass to reach 8-10lbs you may need to research adding threadfin shad. You should be able to raise big bass in 18-20 ac of unfertilized water if the fishery is managed correctly and the bass are harvested properly to keep their numbers adequate (low) to produce few bass but they are generally big bass. But without having higher alkalinity and higher fertility and having clear water you will not be able to have lots of big bass, but the fewer ones you have can generally be larger.

Is it feasible to fertilize/lime a pond/lake with that much water flowing through it? Seems like it would just wash it all away. Am i correct on thinking this?

Do you need to fertilize it?

Not sure. Haven't tested the water before. I just wasn't sure if it would be a waste of time in money if a test stated we did. By the way whats the easiest ways to test the water?