Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Minimal pond size that can self-sustain LMB

I just acquired my land! Awaiting to close at the end of the month.

Much of my 1.5 acre is on a hill, and with house taking up some more flatland, I only have about .25 acre of flat land to work with. Of course, not all can be devoted to the pond.

So my question is, what is the minimal pond size that can self-sustain say a school of 30 LMB? I likely will be at the property once every 3-4 weeks, so I can't be feeding the fish.

Rule of thumb is 50LMB/ac, but many exception to any rule

You can feed with a feeder like Texas Hunter fish feeder.

I guess my first thought is that's a lot of LMB for that size of pond. Then if they reproduce you have a even bigger issue on hand. I would think you would be lucky to grow a bass to 3lbs if your not planning on feeding the pond. I would go with a hybrid striped bass instead of LMB, no reproduction more of put and take fish.

If your dead set on putting in LMB, go with 10 fish. Give the forage fish a year to populate and then add the bass. You can leave the original 10 in year after year to get them larger and take out every offspring you catch. IMO

You can build pond on side of hill. If you are building your house at the top of the 1.5, you might be able to build a larger pound than you think.

If not, then like what SB said, there could be better fish choices. I might go CNBG and HSB. Depends on what you want from your pond

Hey Robert,


+2 to what the other guys said. I would stock 10 LMB or less, depending on what size you end up making the pond.

You've probably got this covered but, just in case....Even with a small pond, there will be a whole bunch of dirt to get rid of. An excavated 1/8 acre pond with an average depth of 8 feet will yield about 1600 yards of dirt (About 160 10yd truck loads). Do you have a plan for that? Moving dirt very far can get very expensive.

Good Luck!

Bill D.

If you can get a good deep 1/8 acre pond, you could raise some nice channel catfish. They will need daily feeding during warm months to get optimal growth.

If I had 1/8 ac, I would go with zero LMB and try hybrid striped bass or channel cats with a Texas Hunter feeder. HSB are super fun to catch.

I am not sure any pond can self sustain LMB in balance. Balance is the exception and either BG overcrowded or LMB overcrowded is the normal state.

I agree with ewest. Without man keeping the pond in balance, it will shift to LMB heavy/stunted LMB after time.

Many years ago, I had long experience (over 10 years) with two LMB-BG ponds. One was about 1/5 acre and the other about 1/3. The 1/3 acre pond was much more fertile (a few cows in its field), about 7 ft deep, and the bass were limited to about 5 pounds. The smaller pond was limited in watershed, had a wooded watershed with no livestock, was about 9 ft deep, and the maximum LMB was a little over two pounds. The bass in both ponds tended to have big heads for body size, and had no supplemental feed.