Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Catfish

I'm considering switching gears. I've had such good luck with CC, I'm leaning towards a CC put and take pond. I had put CC, BG and RES in when I stocked it back in Feb and also had GSF. I was intending to have recreation fishing pond, but now I think I would like to harvest an average of about 200 a year.

I don't mind keeping the GSF, BG and RES that are in there, I mean I don't want to get rid of them, but at the same time, I don't want to over do anything. My pond is not that deep. For instance, right now it's about 4' deep at the very deepest close to the middle and shallower everywhere else. During the course of a year, it could be anywhere between 3' to 7'. It's like a rectangle in shape and completely surrounded by trees. I have a couple of areas that are easy to get to the waters edge, the rest is a jungle. I have no aeration and I hand feed.

I also want to save room for Tilapia in the summer to eat the algae. They have done a superb job for me.

The 100 CC I put in have done well and the one I caught the other day was 15". I'd like to start harvesting pretty soon, so I was considering putting in another 150 (4"-6") CC in October and repeating it again in Feb or March and just kind of keep it going like that.

Am I asking too much of my pond? I figured as long as I was removing enough Biomass, I'd be ok. Ideas? Thoughts?

I would also keep any Sunfish as long as they were big enough.

I am no expert when it comes to growing out catfish so take this with a grain of salt. If you have channels and if you can add more catfish why not try adding some blue cats to the mix? Just wondering

Farmallsc,
Based on my experience with them, you should try to fish out most of your current catfish population before adding more. If you add more without getting the current population down to just a few individuals, you will be at extreme risk of a fish kill. I built a second pond for my next year's catfish, which gives me another year to finish fishing my originals out of my two year old pond. Neither of us have enough water for a very large population of channel catfish.

Just my opinion and experience, fwiw.

If the pond doesn't have any type of aeration system in it, I'd look at a Paddle wheel type system.

Buy the largest Cats you can - it will lower your time to harvest. i.e. if 10"-12" are available, I'd stock them.

Keep good records on what you remove, you have to watch the biomass in the pond to prevent a fish kill during the heat of the summer.

Thanks guys!