Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Bait pond

Dug out a 20' x 40' pond about 10' deep close to the new 1/4 acre pond in order to raise bait. Pond has consistent flow of spring water. Looking for advise to maximize bait production in a small pond dedicated to bait only, probably fatheads.

The pros will be along but from what I do know, you don't need much for fat heads to flourish. They breed once the water hits 18 degrees and they keep breeding pretty much all summer. They grow fast but only live about a year. Since u don't have preditors u won't need to build a bunch of cover, but if u can, put rocks 6-10 inches diameter around the pond shore just under the water. In my pond every rock like that has a minnow guarding his nest. You might think about aeration, it will allow you to have more fish and will keep it from freezing over in the winter so u can pull them out for fishing easier.

Feel free to chime in and correct me anyone I'm still new.

How much flow do you have coming in? Reason I ask that, is how will you collect the fish out of it? To much flow and it would be hard to pump down to collect them, leading to seining. If seining, you probably want a pond that is structure free. Only put items in that are easy to take out when seining. Pallets work well for FHM. I think in the "structure thread" there is some ideas for spawning structure.

Seining would be best, if you end up having too much structure to put in take out. Could always look into investing in multiple minnow traps or home made funnel traps

My buddy seins his but does it through the ice along a 3 feet by 15 foot hole. He just doesn't have structure in the middle.