Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose I need recommendations on stocking and suppliers

I have a 1 1/4 acre new pond that was dug in November of last year and is almost full. Ready to start stocking so went to the Resource Guide to find someone in Southeast Louisiana. Didn't find anyone but had some local recommendations for Dunn's. Contacted them and think I may go with them on their next trip to my area which is the end of May. Was thinking about going ahead and stocking FHM now but don't know where I can get them locally. Figured I could put them in several weeks before my BG, RES, LMB to make sure there were no issues with water etc. Is that reasonable or should I just wait? Also, Dunn's recommended stocking the others all at the same time. I had read that holding off on LMB might be advisable but they said the numbers of BG, RES that would be eaten would not be a problem since the LMB are small.

Goals are to have a good balance of BG, RES for the kids to easily catch and a few average size bass for the adults. Basically a pond for fishing as a mental health break, a trophy every now and then would be nice.

I'm new to pond management and have found the magazine, resource guide, and the Facebook live post a great help. This forum is just the icing on the cake! Keep up the great work!

Not an expert, Barry, but if I were you I'd put in FHM first and let them spawn a couple times until your pond is absolutely full of them. Only then would I stock BG and RES.

In your shoes I wouldn't stock LMB until 2019. Let FHM, BG and RES reproduce like crazy first. Feeding them is fun, too!

Agree , stock FHM first then BG and RES then the LMB next year. Might not be a bad idea to have your water checked first and see what ya got. And read all that you can here
LMB are eating machines if you let them get ahead of your forage it can take years to play catch-up........ unfortunately that happed to me when someone bucket stocked a bunch of LMB...... just now getting that straightened up

Welcome Barry, I can attest to the advice of putting the FHM first. I was in a similar situation as you just one year ago. In fact, my pond filled up exactly one year ago today and I put $30 worth of FHM in shortly after. That was approximately 1000 minnows from 2 to 3 inches long. Fast forward to this last weekend when I stocked HBG, HSB, and RES...The pond is so full of minnows! I stood on the dock yesterday during the heat of the day and estimated that the upper foot of water had 25 minnows (mostly 1 to 1-1/2" long) per cubic foot for as far as I could see out into the pond. To be honest, I wondered if I had too many.

I stocked 2 to 6 inch fish and they should have plenty to eat this year. I believe that waiting a year to stock the fish will actually pay off by the amount of growth they should gain with all the natural forage and it may actually save a bit of money when it comes to supplemental feeding.

At any rate, whether you wait a year to stock your game fish or not, you will want to put something like this in your pond...



These work wonderfully for spawning structures as FHM require rather flat horizontal surfaces to lay their eggs on. I have a 1/4 acre pond and I used 7 stacks of pallets which, once the pond filled up, were about 1 to 2 feet below the surface.

I contemplated waiting until the fall to stock fish and chose to wait until this spring in order to get first dibs on this years fish and fish probably don't do a lot of growing over the winter.

DON'T LET MY PHOTO FOOL YOU. You need more than one cinder block to keep the pallet stack from floating up once the pond fills. I suggest AT LEAST one cinder block per pallet that is in the stack. Don't ask me how I learned that lesson!

Thanks everyone for the input. I think I will wait on everything except FHM. Maybe stock BG, RES late summer or fall and LMB next year. Still need a place I can buy them around here. I live in Baton Rouge and my pond is 1 hour north between Clinton and Kentwood. I will also put in some stacks of pallets for the FHM.

Welcome Barry. Lots of good info and advice on this site. BTW, I grew up just north of the state line from you (Liberty, MS). Got a lot of good friends in the area you are talking about where your pond is. I'm assuming around Easleyville? My wife is from Clinton, so I am very familiar with the area. Good folks and beautiful country all around there.

Yes between Easleyville and Chipola. Any ideas where i can find fat head minnows around there?

I wish I could help out on the suppliers in that area, but not sure at all. I wasn't in the pond owning business when I lived there, so I wouldn't know where to start on that front. Sorry bout that. After re-reading my post, I probably came off sounding like a wealth of knowledge about fish stockers in the area, but I was just talking about the "good folks" aspect of the area. Ha. My bad. Good luck, and it shouldn't be too hard to find somebody down that way.

Here's my opinion FWIW. You've spent $$$$ building a pond, why spend the whole growing year raising fish food (FHM)? I'd add the BG and RES as soon as possible, along with plenty of FHM to feed them. Feed pellets too if you want. I'd expect the BG to pull off a spawn later this summer, before you add the bass this fall.

Note if there are other ponds in the watershed, you may get your pond stocked in the next heavy rain anyway. Best to get the desirable species going ASAP.

Barry, call some local bait shops and ask them where you can find the Fatheads. Tell them you are stocking a pond and need a lot. That usually loosens them up so that they can give away their source. That's how I located the minnows for my pond. Otherwise, if you find a bait shop that will order them for you, you will likely pay a lot more for them and wait a week or so, but traveling a few hours adds up gas money pretty quick too.

A quick web search shows a place called Shepard's Sportfish in Maurice, LA. that sells the FHMs. I know nothing about them.. Here is a link to the website...

http://stockapond.com/pond-stocking/

I searched "Fish Farms Baton Rouge" and got this one as well...

https://www.parkersfishfarm.com/


AND, Red makes some good points to consider. I'm sure it all depends. My decision was based on waiting to see what the pond became as it was renovated by a dirt guy and I did not want to waste money on stocking if the pond failed to hold water well. I used the extra year to do research and decide on my stocking plans, to get a feel for the pond, and to plant some vegetation. I will say that I spent $30 on FHMs and gave them one year and I now have $1000 worth of live natural feed. Actually, I have no idea how many dollars worth of minnows are now in the pond, but I can say that my budget would not have allowed me to buy this many.

you can also ask the dnr for a list of bait dealers in your area - many have these lists online

Also, quite a few bait shops will only keep minnows for a set amount of time - you can usually get a deal on them in bulk right before they refresh their supply. It is about 50% off around here

Thanks for the advise. I was able to contact a few "locals" and have a plan. As of now the plan is.... Immediately place additional structure in the pond for the FHM... Stock with FHM, BG, RES ASAP (probably within a few weeks)... Stock LMB later in early fall or spring 2019.

Also be advised, if you get your cnbg in soon they grow very fast and can actually start spawning at only about 3 inch long!! Also,where I am in deep east Texas with warm climate, my cnbg spawn 4 or 5 times every year!!! Getum goin and good luck!!!