Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking a new pond with RES, YP and SMB

No photos?

I stocked 36 papershell crayfish in 2008 and have a fraction of the rock you have. 6 years later I have a very predator heavy fishery with SMB, WE, HSB, YP, HBCP and my crayfish population is still very strong. I'm confident you'll be fine, and have plenty of additional forage sources to help relieve pressure off their population regardless.

Cecil, there definitely a lot of very small swimming pool ponds around me and they all claim to have 1/4 ac ponds, but in reality are quite short of that. I walked the pond a couple hours after dark and seen 3 or 4 perch up in the shallows just sitting there. I wonder if they were bloated up on FHM, lol. Also crayfish were everywhere! Pretty cool to see all the life in the pond at night. Seen tons of crays, frogs and endless amounts of FHM.

Feed trained SMB are definitely high on the list for next fall Essup. Know any body that could raise some up for me next spring? Im just real nervous next fall will come and SMB will be hard to get a hold of. Nobody I talk to can really quarantee theyll have them...

CJ, pics of the LCS are already up on this thread back on page 4, but heres what they looked like going in.
http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u392/JamieE38/6f1cca148bd8125049d7d9d407f8e340.jpg

Unfortunately, one died so I got to see what size they looked like about a month ago. They are hitting the pellets nightly with the GSH.

http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u392/JamieE38/7c16b5e398c72be89be0deab3a4d4971.jpg
http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u392/JamieE38/e0690ea1d3f473b803dbbc18e635c6ab.jpg

TJ, Hearing of your success with the crayfish from back in 2008 and only stocking 36 makes me feel real good about my situation. Sounds like I went a little above and beyond with my setup...LOL

Here's a few pics of the yellow perch released into the pond yesterday that Cecil delivered. I wanted to show the size and how healthy these fish looked going into the pond!

http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u392/JamieE38/86488bd4fcd347f24d657f3dadb26c86.jpg

http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u392/JamieE38/5f69802c3bc54f0f0a02ad4c2bcc6779.jpg

http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u392/JamieE38/a1f79a3c6b11c0de3888c03a40870eda.jpg

http://i1065.photobucket.com/albums/u392/JamieE38/57198f82f83fa4d24744447dccaf3dcc.jpg

Jamie, congrats. Your success as mine is definitely due to the guys on here advice but you show that you have thoroughly researched what and when to do and have done a great job following that info.
I'm headed to Fl next Tues but the invitation to fish my pond is open next spring.
Cecil, did you deliver all those YP in one 120 qt cooler? I think from your place to Jamies is probably about 1&1/2 hrs did you aeriate ?

If feed trained SMB are available next Spring, I plan on getting some for other peoples ponds.

Yes I used two of them. One on the back seat and one on in the very back of the wife's suv. The one on the seat was actually a storage tub. The cooler bilge pump and spray bar was hooked to a 12 volt battery, and the other storage tub bilge pump and spray bar was hooked up to a cig liter attachment.

The vehicle was protected with a 6mil plastic drop cloth.

Thanks for that info. How close was on the time guess?

Right on the money Bob.

In the future I'm going to purchase a small utiliity trailer and mount a 100 gallon tank on it I got for free from the Assman Corp in Garrett. It's rectangular and I'll mount a 12 volt agitator to the top.

Essup, do you mean your getting SMB in the spring to raise up and sell for fall stocking? If so how many are you planning on getting and how many can you raise? Im guessing you have a cage or cages you put them in and just keep them fed until fall?

Hey Bob, thanks for the invite to bring the boy up and fish. I think he would enjoy that and it would give him maybe a little taste of things to come in our pond. His patience to have to wait on all this to come together isn't holding up too well. Hes always asking me when he can start fishing. In the last month or so hes actually been fishing for golden shiners and catching quite a few and this has for now satisfied him a bit.

Here are some pictures I took at the stocking event of the yellow perch at Jamie's Pond.

I backed up to this beautiful pea gravel beach. Here are father and son hard at work counting and putting then into the water. I wasn't sure exactly how many I had and preferred they were counted pond side.



Another pic.



A couple of pics of Jamie's 3 acre pond. The pictures don't do it justice. Wanted to get back so didn't really get into depth taking pics of the entire pond.





Here's one of the over 400 yellow perch that were destined for the pond.



One of the transport containers which consists of a 120 qt. cooler with a small Rule bilge pump connected to a frame that has slots cut into it on one side. The frame sets in at a slope and sprays water onto the surface. Very simple to duplicate and works well for hauling smaller fish and lower densities. This idea courtesy of Ken (Catmandoo) as he posted his on the site once and I really liked the idea.

The remaining fish are crowded in the area of the pump to hide from the dip net.

Definitely a lovely BOW. I meant to comment on his rocked shores when he posted his pictures and did not get it done. Super nice.

I am so jealous of this pond!

That is one healthy looking YP. Did you take WR measurements? I'll wager that's 130+, easy.

Cecil or Cody YP genetics are coveted - great foundation for any fishery - I am happy for you but a tad envious, too. One of the advantages working with smaller, boutique hatcheries is that they literally pour their heart and soul into each fish they sell, and the results are readily evident. If anyone ever has the opportunity to introduce genetics from passionate experts like like Cody, Condello, Baird, Tony, Al, George, Esshup, Shorty, Yolk, Cat etc. you are way ahead of the game in producing an excellent fishery. I wouldn't hesitate stocking fish from any of them for a second and would consider myself fortunate.

Now you just need some Hudland SMB, and your fishery will be well on it's way!

I should have weighed one but prefer to handle fish as little as possible. They fed well in the ras tank at a good density.

Very nice yellow perch and expect them to be double in size at 8"-10" by next fall of 2015 assuming they have ample food. Sometimes YP will struggle in a minnow heavy pond when the YP have strong tendencies for eating pellets. Even in 3 acres if noise is made in the pond at feeding time such as splashing water or tapping on the dock or the rocky bottom prior to feeding, this noise will draw in the inquisitive perch from fairly far distances to eventually see the pellets and resume eating pellets. Pellet trained YP are accustomed to looking at the surface for floating food. Be sure to feed high protein (40%-42%) pellets.

In a situation like this I find it is usually very beneficial to use a floating feeding to contain the pellets in a small area 6-12ft offshore so the pellets do not float to shore and become useless to the YP. Feed small amounts of pellets at first until the YP locate the feeding area. Minnows will feed on pellets in the ring and this activity often draws in the YP or other pellet trained fish. YP have schooling tendencies. Once a few perch find the pellets it does not take very long for remaining fish to find the feeding area. When YP find the feeding area, most of them will not stray far from this buffet area. Try to feed at the same time every day and feed at times similar to when Cecil feed these perch. YP are pretty strong creatures of habit tendencies.

I have not seen any of the 25 6-8" YP we put in our 1-acre pond last Fall, and did not see any egg strands or young this year. We did not feed and did not find any dead ones. Even so, I am planning to add 10 or 12 4" SMB this fall. There are plenty of small minnows near the edges, but they appear to be the shape of FHMs. I also have not seen any of the GSH we put in last Spring, but again no dead fish. We have some weeds, including some curly-leaf pondweed, but not much. Our domestic waterlilies are doing OK also. There are plenty of small frogs as well. Hopefully the few SMB will be able to get the cycle going.

Some of the YP I released from the cage have done well staying on pellets, and the number of fish which feed at the surface appears to be increasing. I have high hopes that more will come back to the feed.

Thanks guys for the compliments on the pond. We're very pleased with the way it's progressed in the first year and excited about things to come!

Hudland SMB? TJ , Could I get more info. on these please? Bill we've been feeding just as we always do and also throwing pellets out further into open water... Can't say if the perch have found the pellets yet, but haven't noticed any.

Cecil, what time did you feed the perch? Maybe as Bill said they're looking for pellets at a different time then were feeding.

I feed all my fish in late evening Jamie. Don't worry if you don't see any for several days or even until next spring. That's a lot of water for 4 to 5 inch fish. And considering the small size of the fatheads I saw, they may be more interested in them initially.

I find it usually takes up to a week or two before newly planted fish start feeding normally too. Hauling is a stressful situation for them.

That makes sense Cecil. Well just keep doing what we're doing and see what happens. I'll try to tap on the pier with something at feeding time and maybe that will help get they're attention.

Build that feeding ring up to 6 ft in dia. Anchor it near the dock where you can toss pellets into it. It will help more than you realize.

I'll give the ring a go Bill. I'm just concerned that we'll have so many minnows, shiners ans LCS feeding on the pellets that they won't have a chance to find them floating inside. All Pellets are inhaled very quickly as we feed. Guess maybe I could feed heavily near the pier to start and throw pellets out further into the ring after the small fish are up close and busy feeding.

One thing to do is feed larger pellets that the minnows cannot swallow right away. The perch you got from Cecil in the picture is big enough to eat Amax 5D06 (9/32") aka AM600 size pellet. A 5" YP has a mouth gape of 1/2"; twice the size of a AM600 pellet. LCS will not eat pellets. Minnow feeding activity will attract the perch. Once perch figure out where the pellet buffet is, rest assured the perch will get their share of the pellets.

Bill, we have GSH in the 5"+ range that are very aggressively eating pellets! They'll consume as many as we feed within reason. I'm surprised that you say the LCS won't eat pellets because we have 6-7" fish that sure appear to be LCS eating the pellets just as aggressive las the GSH. They look just like the one we found floating about a month ago... They look kind of similar to a bass while swimming, but have much smaller mouths. They look distinctly different then the GSH.