Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose What Edible Fish can be stocked in PA?

I'm looking to potentially add a one acre pond to our property. I'm an advocate of raising your own food when possible, so I would love to stock fish that we could raise to eat. I've done lots of reading and made a few calls. It seems like catfish and trout aren't as common as I would have anticipated up here. Has anyone in the northern states had luck with either or other edible fish?

If you are looking just for food and not the whole food chain (ie. a BG LMB pond) IMO stock catfish. If you do make a 1 acre pond, aerate and feed it catfish are a great option. Another to consider is HSB. They are another fish that loves pellets. You could get away with stocking 500 HBG, 50 CC, and 50 HSB. I'm no expert but with decent depth you could raise a lot of food fish.

I live in Wisconsin and have CC and without feeding I grew mine from 6 inches in October 2016 to 12 inches in August 2017.

If you want higher quality fish fillets and likely not at much biomass consider yellow perch with walleye or smallmouth. Lots of yellow perch can be raised in a pond when they are fed pellets and few predators are present. Trout can be raised put and take October to June and grow from 8"-15"-16" in that time. If you want variety with quantity consider two 1/2 acre easier to manage ponds with different species in each. Spring fed smaller ponds will raise lots of trout when the surface water stays below 65F year round.