Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Bluegill or Yellow perch for small pond

I'm planning on doing pretty small pond, 1/10 acre or less(most like less). I'm trying to figure out what fish I want to do. What i want is fish that will reproduce for eating purposes and angling. This is what ive come up with trying to figure out which fish I want. Bluegill are more prolific, yellow perch spawn once a year. I read yellow perch do better in smaller ponds than other fish, Yellow perch winter very well and tolerate low oxygen. Yellow perch stay in the deep water where as bluegill are what ever. Edibility wise they are pretty much the same. Ive also thought about doing both fish but not sure if that is a good idea. Should I add some sort of predator fish either way? Hopefully I didn't forget any thing, thanks for looking.

I have just recently read that yellow perch can spawn more then once per year.

Cheers Don.

Yellow perch could possibly spawn more than once a year, but it would be very rare instances. Normally their spawn season is very short. Majority of the spawning season can be as short as 1 week to up to 3 weeks.

For a pond less of 0.1 ac or less, you should focus your techniques on aquaculture methods using intensive almost daily management where fish are fed and cultured similar to other farm animals. IMO if you rely on casual and occasional management your harvest will be less than it could be and maybe disappointing.

Several members here use aquaculture type methods to raise fish for various purposes. One of the most successful is Cecil Baird who is past president of IN Aquaculture Assoc. Become familiar with his previous posts that deal with his fish management methods. Various states have aquaculture websites - become familiar with those information sources.

IMO you should not rely on a predator to control the fish numbers in a small pond (0.1ac or less). Predation is a variable & feature where you don't have a lot of control of what the predators are eating. When doing aquaculture farming you want as much control of the population as possible so you achieve predictable and reliable results. It is not good farming practice to have a fox in the hen house or a coyote on the sheep farm.

IMO and experience for farm raising of fish for the table you want to have some basic features:
1. the pond should be easily drainable and refillable so you can periodically restart the crop every year or periodically.
2. pond should be built to easily seine it for harvest and management.
3. consider how you will manage the nuisance weeds and algae - all farmers deal with plant management - natural, organic or chemical??
4. IMO it is best to periodically purchase pellet trained fish as your crop so they reliably eat prepared fish food and grow at the fastest best rate for optimum harvest. I would not rely on spawning to resupply what is harvested. It is too unpredictable and uncontrollable. The best farmers have very good control of their crops.
There are numerous other things to consider when raising fish for table use. Information on aquaculture websites will educate you.

What you are planning to do is very achievable if done properly. Do your homework and keep us informed as to your progress. There are many here that can provide very good advice to you when you have questions. Cecil has often referenced a backyard fish farming book called Small Scale Aquaculture by S. Van Gorder. We both have this good book.
http://www.amazon.com/Small-Scale-Aquacu...ard+Aquaculture

Also consider this book: The Freshwater Aquaculture Book; 1st or 2nd edition. by William McLarney, 1st Edition is cheaper, but maybe more out of date?. 2nd edition was published 2013, but I have not seen this edition. Note: I contacted Bill McLarney and he said the 2nd edition has nothing new, basically just a reprinted 1st edition. It is a good basic book.
http://www.amazon.com/Freshwater-Aquacul...quaculture+book


Consider growing single sex fish in the main pond and using cage culture to grow and increase the size of fingerling or juvenile same mixed sex species for eventual sorting and then release desired stockers into the main pond for further grow out & harvest. Several members here do that in their ponds.

Looks like my plans for this big of a pond have to go on hold. The area I wanted to put it at has large boulders every where. I'm doing another smaller pond that will probably be 20ft x 30 ft in a different location. Not sure if I can still do some perch but if not maybe some gold fish just as pets.

The pond Im planning on will be about the size of this guys pond.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aysc0pSCjtk