Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat New build

I'm in the process of building a .4-.5 acre pond with a max depth of 10-12'. My goal is to raise eating sized bluegill, and some decent 2-3# large mouth bass. Mainly just a fun place for the kiddos to fish and to be able to support a fish fry a couple times a year. When it comes to habitat I was thinking of doing a few pallet structures, some rock piles, and a pea gravel section of a bank. Then a couple tree tops stacked on top of each other. Am i missing anything? also, i'd love some suggestions on stocking.
Thanks!

If you are anywhere near Middle TN check with Mike Gray before moving any dirt. This fellow is one of the BEST pond builders in the whole TN region. Tell him Pond Boss sent you.
http://www.grayconstruction.net/

Your goals are very achievable for a 0.4ac pond. Best results for the BG and achieving your 2lb to 3 lb LMB goal is to be sure to buy pellet trained LMB and feed them pellets with a minimum of 40% protein. Optimal fish food grows big BG the fastest, Optimal also has a special bass pellet. With high quality protein pellets and good bottom aeration you will grow some amazing fish in terms of numbers and sizes a small pond that size. Start with fatheads and small BG, feed them, allow them to grow and then in Fall or the next spring add the juvenile 4”-6”LMB. If available for you, also consider adding some specklebelly sunfish. They will cross with BG but the initial stockers will be impressive to the sizes they obtain. These hybrid cross of BGXRES can grow to 2+ pounds with pellet feeding. If it were my pond I would use the LMB as 4"-6" size that have a longer pellet training - eating growth time to insure best pellet habituation and fastest growth once stocked. In 24-30 months done right, 2 lb LMB could be produced.

When establishing structure the best fishery is produced when the structure encompasses 15% -20% of the shoreline. Create fish cities of structure groupings not just some scattered fish attractor structures. Grouping the structures is important to improving the overall fishery. They do not need to be in the bottom and deepest area; best placement is in 12" to 5ft of water. The best structure refuge areas provide cover and protection of small fish and the larger fish will learn to be near those areas or groupings. Learn more about proper habitat:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/976324/3322504-episode-001-fish-habitats


Ideas
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92463#Post92463

Dirt is being moved as I type so a little late on that front haha. I will have to see if I can find the Specklebelly any near by to stock. I'm planning on hopefully buying a cheaper auto feeder. If that doesn't work feeding will be a fun thing to do with the boys i guess.. I'm also looking into some DIY solar aerators, the pond is about 750 ft away from any existing power and i don't want to trench through the woods that separating it from my house/shop power.

You can directionally bore the aeration tubing underground cheaper than buying a solar aerator. The fish need aeration at night the most, so without a big enough battery bank the solar will only work during the day.

The only "cheap" feeder that I'd recommend is a hanging deer type feeder that throws food in a 360° circle. you can put a shield on part of it to stop it from throwing towards the pier. If you need to put it on the bank, you will need some sort of pivoting hanger that will allow you to hang it out over the water about 10'-15' from shore but pivot it back to shore to fill it. Filling it from a boat is a royal PITA. Been there, done that and won't do it again.

I figured if I could run a solar setup 3-5 hours at night off a battery bank it would be much better than nothing. Also, that's exactly the type of feeder i was thinking of. I'm going to build a small dock i think and i would hang it off the corner and shield it like you said.

What's everyone's thoughts on stocking 200 or so PK shrimp when i first stock the pond? Will they use tree tops and my other structures as enough cover? or do they have to have vegetation to hide in?

Putting PK Shrimp in won't hurt anything, and you're right to make sure they have proper structure to thrive.

I also would put them in…. Mine went ape in my pond and now can’t scoop up a bucket of water without catching some. They are thick in the slender spike rush that is all around the pond out to6-8’ deep

Will wood piles and that type of structure be enough? or do I need vegetation growing? Pat, I'm assuming that it's been a huge boom to your BG and Largemouth?

See the structure archive for ideas. Wood piles are good. Importantly bunch structure together with some at all depths and some off the banks.

How well do pine trees work for cover? I have many more pine trees than I care to have so it would be handy to throw a few tops in the pond. Didn't know if they could somehow mess up PH or something like that. That'd be about my luck haha.

Cut them, let them turn brown on shore, see if you can knock the majority of the needles off. Just less material to go into the pond to add to the nutrient load.

While waiting on the weather to dry out and warm up i've been thinking a fair amount about the pond. Any have thoughts on YP or Tilapia in middle TN? I especially like the idea of some YP. Think it'd be a neat fish to grow and harvest.

Most everyone who has YP in their pond has reported only upsides and no downsides. Never heard of anyone who didn't like eating them. If you get pellet trained YP you will find they grow very well and are active feeders in lower light times of day. They have many advantages over other panfish (including easy to control their numbers)

Tilapia if legal are also a great forage fish option with little downside or interference with your other goals for your stocked fish.

Tilapia have the advantage of algae control, though they will prey on smaller fish at times. Good to eat when taken from clean water. The only issue is that they can be hard to catch, unlike perch.

From what i've read the only real downside to YP is that if there is LMB in the pond they'll eat most of the YP fry? If i put them in at same time as BG and let them spawn 1-2 times before I add bass there should be a decent enough number of them in the pond. And if i have to supplement every couple years that's not a huge deal. I love the idea of some variety in the pond.

You could just add a little lime to offset any effect. No big deal.

Is your water cool enough for good YP growth?

Bob is well south of I-40, one of our important fish geographic break points.

However, Snipe's YP seem to be thriving at his location in NW Kansas.

I believe Snipe's AVERAGE water temperature will be significantly lower than the OP's pond. However, I am not sure that the summer peak water temperature in the OP's pond would be too much higher than Snipe's water temperature. (He is located in an area with a huge seasonal temperature differential.)

I don't know which number is most important for YP to thrive outside of their "ideal" range. I will leave that discussion up to the actual fish experts.

I'm not sure on temps yet due to pond not being finished yet. But i know some rivers/lakes south of me have yellow perch populations so i wouldn't think it'd be completely out of the question.

YP will probably thrive in your pond. I would worry more about LMB for problems with YP than temperature problems. If you let the YP grow to 6"-8" before adding fingerling LMB and you have ample habitat cover as in 25% of the shoreline the YP should be able to maintain a breeding population providing you regularly harvest LMB and do not let them become abundant. Numbers of small perch the anglers are catching will give you a good idea or estimate of bass numbers. LMB at 15"-16" do not only eat YP fry but also they easily eat perch up to 7"-8". If you are a 16" LMB why spend hours catching 1"-2" YP when one 6" YP makes you very happy. Maintain ample cover for young mid size 1-2 year old YP. Feed all the fish good quality high protein pellets and all will grow well.

PK shrimp will create enough numbers to grow fish unless you have ample weed cover as noted by Pat Williamson. PK need vegetation to thrive and avoid predation. High protein pellets can take the place of PK shrimp. You ample habitat will grow a good community of invertebrates to sustain the lower food chain.

If YP are elected, choose a supplier closest to your region/climate.

I'm planning on dumping a few hundred PK shrimp in as soon as I have water and crossing my fingers they can get something going. i will feed, but am also hoping if they get going i can feed less. . I can also buy yellow perch out of Nashville, so that should be close enough i'd imagine.

I would ask the folks in Nashville where their fish came from and then where they Really (I mean originally before that stop!) came from. Nashville may be a drop off hub from a fish farm in Ohio or Indiana (or Kansas) etc. I'm learning that genetics is important but where the fish learned their 'habitat' in what the water is like, what they ate, how they fed etc etc determines how well they will do in your pond.

Good suggestion! Can never hurt to be more thorough.

If the Nashville's supplier has a home office in Ohio, then I'd be suspecting that the fish came from Ohio.....

Looks like i've found a fairly local source for Grass Shrimp at 79 cents a piece. So once this thing gets dug i'm going to dump some shrimp and FHM in it and let them procreate for a couple months before dumping in my BG and possibly YP if i can find them. The YP supplier i found is now out of stock.

Bob, who was your YP Supplier?

Before you dump the Grass Shrimp in there make sure you have the correct habitat for them to survive and procreate.

Jones out of Nashville is the only people i've found in TN to have the YP available. When it comes to the grass shrimp I will be making sure I have some vegetation going and lots of brush and junk for them to hang around.

I picked up some YP from my supplier on Friday and will pick up more in a few weeks.

Grass shrimp need more finely divided submerged habitat that brush and junk. Think large patches of small narrow leaf pond weeds; Small Pond Weed (Potamogeton) species is one good example. For a brand new pond for stocking grass shrimp, you might as well toss dollar bills into the pond. Same long term benefit. Unless you have actually collected grass shrimp in wild pond lake habitats one does not realize what type of cover they require to thrive.

Bill,
If I was to have some normal grass planted along the banks before the water comes up would that be sufficient? Or do I need to wait until I get any proper water weeds? Any way to speed up that process? I definitely think it'd be better to do it before any predators are added into the pond. At 70 cents a piece I don't want to throw away a few hundred bucks in wasted shrimp haha.

Submerged terrestrial grass along inundated shoreline will initially for month or two provide some shelter for the GS. However what cover will they have for continued dense refuge and survival as the grass quickly decomposes? Grass shrimp are a great addition however dense habitat needs to be present for the population to thrive year to year. IMO most pond owners really don't understand the full concept of proper sport fish habitat. Ideally grass shrimp should be raised in their own small forage pond with minnows and then moved to the main grow out pond.

Bill, I'm obviously very new to all this. However, we have several local lakes with lots of aquatic vegetation. It would be very easy to take the boat out and dig up some small pods of it to transfer to the pond to get it kicked off. Assuming that I take pictures of it and yall confirm that it would be a good candidate for the pond of course. Would that speed things up significantly? My concern is that if i have to wait a long time for aquatic vegetation to get going then by that time I will most likely already have BG in the pond and then when I dump in GS they will just be immediately gobbled up. Maybe I'm just underestimating how resilient they can be if they have the proper existing habitat though.

Bob,

When the water level drops in a pond or lake, it is frequently terrestrial (land based) weeds and vegetation that start growing on the newly exposed pond bottom. This does provide excellent cover for forage species when the water levels go back up and re-flood that vegetation. However, that is a short-term benefit - those terrestrial plants will die when flooded. (I think your edge grass plantings would be a poor investment.)

I do agree with your next to last sentence. You don't want your GS gobbled up immediately, you want a breeding population with places to hide and thrive and are only occasionally gobbled up!

I personally (non-expert) would agree with transplanting some beneficial water plants during this stage of your pond management. However, I suspect there may be some rules against taking plants from state lakes. (And they could have zebra mussels.) Try and look up the rules, or ask a park ranger.

Any buddies with ponds where they would let you harvest?

Small sample size anecdotal information follows:

I gave my pond a year to develop vegetation before I added grass shrimp. I bought 20 of them from the ebay guy.
A year later there were thousands of them swimming in the pond.

Patience is your friend when starting a new pond.

Augie that's really good to hear. Were they the first thing you added to the pond?

FHM, GSH in the spring, then RES and some accidental BG were stocked in June of that year.
I also added daphnia and scuds that first spring.
It was late August/early September time frame when the grass shrimp went in.
There was a ton of weed growth in the water, along with 100-ish eastern red cedars, by the time I added the shrimp.

Augie used the wisest method to get grass shrimp established.

Going back and reading your fishery goals: "I'm in the process of building a .4-.5 acre pond with a max depth of 10-12'. My goal is to raise eating sized bluegill, and some decent 2-3# large mouth bass."
Then IMO You really do not need grass shrimp to achieve growing high quality fish for your stated goals. Your primary 1st concern is to stock proven high quality fish from a reputable grower or supplier and not something bought off a traveling fish truck. Ask where the stocker fish came from and what is known about the genetic background of the fish.

2nd concern is seek and find pellet raised fish that you buy. The larger the stockers are the more habituated they are to eat pellets.

3rd is to buy the appropriate sized stocker fish for the time when you stock them. Do not by the smallest size of the species available as those are likely to be the runts and slower growers which is usually the small size available in spring. Also smallest fish have the least time trained to eat pellets which means they may not resume eating pellets very well - poorly habituated to pellets. Pellets grow fish better compared eating grass shrimp.

4th is feed the fish a high quality fish food such as Optimal Bluegill or Purina sport fish food. Best first year plan is to buy some (1/2 bag) high protein food from the supplier of the fish. For your small pond I would not buy a whole 40-50 lb bag because you will only need 12 to 20 lbs of food for the rest of the year of feeding for the 0.4ac new small fish pond. It is best to not store and use fish food for over a year old.

Because you are somewhere in TN and if your really care about getting your pond started off very good, I would at least contact this TN pond company for an opinion and an estimate for getting your fish; even if you have to drive 3 hrs to pick them up. I agree with his stocking strategy and pond start-up philosophy. He is reputable for quality fish and concerned about his reputation for growing quality fish.
https://www.trophypond.com/pond-stocking-tennessee-fish-stocking

See his referenced article near the page bottom about grass shrimp – note in the article they are usually associated with abundant vegetation. Vegetation is a key item for grass shrimp success.
https://www.trophypond.com/resources
Article Quotes -
"They reproduce and survive best in the weedy habitat found in many ponds. They do not become abundant when stocked in larger lakes and reservoirs-or in ponds containing sport fish and few aquatic weeds. adults can be caught in May and June by seining or dip-netting in weedy areas of ponds, ditches and streams. They are not common, however….. In August 1973 we collected 81 bluegill from a pond filled with aquatic vegetation. Most were less than 5 inches long, but some were as long as 8 inches. Shrimp were present in the stomachs of 64% of the fish,"

IMO you are best spending your money on better quality fish and high quality fish food to produce quality fish compared to trying to establish grass shrimp in a new bare bottom pond.

Keep us updated as to the progress of your pond.

So I'm getting ready to start putting my habitat together. I've got an almost unlimited amount of pallets I can get for free from work. I am planning on having a bunch of 3 sided pyramids/triangles made and then some "bridges" that'll consist of 2 stacks of 3 pallets with a pallet on top connecting the two stacks. Any other suggestions on ways to use pallets? Also, is there such thing as too many pallets? I'm also going to do some busted up concrete and rocks. Along with at least one pea gravel bed for bluegills.

Sounds good

I am going to read back on your project Bob. Sounds fun!

As with most things, you can have too much of a good thing. Including pallets. First, pallets are usually treated. Not usually enough to do any damage, but the potential is there. They will gradually degrade, but not for years. Second, pallets catch hooks. Snags. A lot of folks like PVC structures instead. An array of pallets in different shapes and sizes will be fun to put together and place. Try to mark them so they're easy to find when the pond fills up. Concrete and rocks are great! I don't know if you can have too much rocky substrate. But it's definitely labor intensive. I encourage you to check out the structure thread that Bill Cody posted earlier. Great ideas there.

Edit - With regard to the concrete and rocks. As the pond silts in, as they all do (Lusk says every pond wants to be dry land), a large majority of your rocky intentions will be covered in mud/silt. So on the bottom of the pond, unless it's a pile, kind of defeats the purpose. But on the shoreline, like the first 4-6 feet deep or so, is wonderful habitat for an array of species. Bouncing jigs off rocks is serious fun too. All depends on how much work you want to put into it.

Bob, be sure to check the alkalinity. Grass shrimp need lots of calcium to thrive.

Since I won't have vegetation right away I will hold off on the Grass Shrimp. Trying to get my initial stocking plan put together. I'm thinking (100) 2-3" pure BG, (100) SBS and then 10# of FHM. Then later in the fall when available I may dump in a few YP just to see how they do. I'll pellet feed, but when I think i have enough vegetation i will also add some Shrimp. Bass will go in next spring.

Thoughts? Pond still isn't dug, but should be .4-.6 acres.

I looked back on your Feb 20 post and you said they were moving dirt as you typed?

If you plan on feeding the fish pellets and if your YP are supposed to be pellet trained then I think you can add the YP with the BG. Buy your YP as 4"-6" size when you stock BG. It it were me I would mix the YP 4"-6" in with several of the 6"-8" sizes. The bigger size YP from Jones are quite a bit more expensive however you would not need very many. Thus I would reduce the number of BG to compensate for the added cost of YP. This will insure a good YP spawn Spring 2024. Pellet eating YP will not eat hardly any minnows if good quality pellet food is available. I just looked at Jones website and they are sold out of all their YP. One has to get them ordered March - early April.

Please be sure to return to this thread with pond updates to share with us how well the SBS grow compared to BG. Your fishery plan will be a good learning experience for all of us. Thanks.

Bill, They were ripping out the trees and getting the site prepped back in Feb. Then they had to take off to go finish another job. Me and the guy are trading some services around so we have never had a super defined time line. Just that we would both be done before summer. I'm almost finished with his job and he supposed to be dropping his equipment off any day to get started. Since Jones is out of YP do you think it'd be ok to dump them in this fall when they're available? They said they will have more in stock after this summer. Then maybe wait until next summer/fall to dump in the bass? That way they can get a spawn off in the spring.

YP can be added in fall; you will just lose the 2" to 4" of growth that would have occurred this summer. This fall buy most of the stockers at 4"-6" and also several of those 6"-8" to insure a good 2024 spawn of YP. The 2"-3" YP this fall will be mostly the smaller males of the 2023 year class. The majority of the 2023 well fed year class SHOULD be 4"-7" by fall - October. YP will very little if any during winter and if eating good amounts of winter cold water food the YP will maintain good plump body weight for the early spring spawn. YP do actively feed in cold water under ice cover.

Good to know. I'm assuming I don't have to worry about the BG, FHM, or YP really running rampant and causing crowding issues? If anything there will just be an abundance of bait for when I dump bass in next spring I'd assume.

Correct, the bass will help control the numbers once they get big enough to eat them.

Well, digging has finally begun. They've had dump trucks taking off dirt all day Saturday and again today. My builder told me when he showed up that he had enough places to send the dirt that we was going to go to 15' in the deeper 1/4 of the pond. He's got the deepest section roughed out and is starting on the rest today. It's great to see progress happening. Since the pond is so deep i'm assuming it'd really benefit from aeration? I've got a buddy with a trencher, so i was thinking i would look into what it would take to get it setup in my shop and then just run the lines to the pond. Anyone got a good pump recommendation? Do i just use PEX tubing to move the air to the pond?

This link may help. The run to the pond you have several options and diameters to consider depending on slope and length of run. You DON'T want water settling in low spots in your transmission line if possible. Then you will want proper weighted line in the pond itself.

https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=557954#Post557954

That seems to solve the question of the lines. How about the pump itself? I'd imagine that'd be the expensive part? I've no clue how to size it.

I'm not an expert on aeration but there are many threads where the basics are laid out. Using google search you may come up with several pondboss threads that help. The bottom line is you want to turn over (lift and move to the surface) roughly the entire water mass every 24 hours or so.

Most aeration companies will have specs on their pumps for lift or gallons per hour lift. You calculate how many gallons are in your pond by estimating a term called acre feet (google) To estimate acre feet you also need to know a bit about what the slope of your bottom is so you can guesstimate how much water is in your pond. A lot depends on surface area and then how gradual you go to depth and then how much of the depth is at the deep part.

I have a pond that probably is about half of yours. I"m about 0.25 acres at maximum fill and most of the time sits at about 0.22 acres surface area. My max depth is about 8' and my banks are typical about 2.5 to 3' run to every 1 foot drop in depth.

I chose the Vertex 1/4hp pump with a 2 membrane diffuser choosing a package that included the cabinet and weighted hose. I paid more for the package but also got help with sizing from their sales team and also help for years after the sale. I had to rebuild my vertex pump once due to known factory issues with the teflon wear parts. The rebuild kit was inexpensive and the new parts are improved with much longer expected life expectancy. I"m in MI and most northern pond owners only need to run their pump from say mid May to early Sept as we have plenty of cool air temps and wind action to aerate our pond without need for supplemental aeration. I don't put that many hours on and my cabinet stays cool and the filters really stay pretty clean from year to year.

If you get us an idea of gallons of water we can help size it. Since I have one base station, one output weighted hose and 2 diffuser heads my setup is fairly simple. It turns over the water at least once in 24 hours which is the right sizing for me. Once you know your water volume and layout of the pond you can decide if you want 2 separate base stations (some want one near a deep zone and one in a shallow zone to avoid having to move the deep one to shallow in the winter) Winter aeration is only needed if you feel conditions are right for winterkill. I never aerate in winter and have never had a recognized winter kill.

Looks like I may be able to aerate for around 1k. Once it's finished being dug i'll "dig deeper" into the numbers and see what's actually required. If that's the case i will probably pursue that this spring. I like the idea of getting the most Biomass possible in this smaller of a pond.

I read my last post and there was an unintentional pun that the aeration experts probably are rolling their eyes about.

I said this... The 'bottom line' is that.....

Yes, keeping the line on the bottom is critical!!

The compressor, its air supply and its housing or protection to keep it cool is the part that is worth spending money on to get a good one. After that you can source your own tubing, design a manifold if you want 2 or 3 separate air lines although probably not needed in your scenario. You can buy the diffuser membranes and use standard PVC plumbing to attach to a base. Several threads show examples of ways to support the diffuser heads so they don't tip over and so that the plume is raised sufficiently off the bottom to not stir up mud.

I'm planning on keeping the pump inside my shop and just running the line out to the pond (~500') away.

The cleaner air in the shop should serve to increase your pump life.

Is the shop well vented? Heat build-up is the enemy of compressor pumps.

Looking like the pond will be finished this week. We have several days of rain on the way so I'm expecting I'll have a decent amount of water in it a week from now. How long do I need to wait before adding FHM and BG? Do I need to do a PH check on it before dumping fish in it? Fertilizer?

PH and alkilinity. At first, it will be muddy. Hold off on fish until it clears and you can check water quality. Watch it for awhile to assure that it is holding water.

Just use some pool test strips? Or is there something specific i need?

Correct. Just make sure they aren't out of date. You might want to check them against a known water supply if you have one, like water in the house.

I've got some strips for our hot tub, so that should be easy to do. I've wanted to put a pond on this property since we bought it a few years ago. It's super nice to see it finally coming together.

What should i do for the deep water? i'll have about 40'x40' are thats a good 15' deep. Should i throw some stumps down in it?

There is a current thread on that exact topic.

Open Water Cover

Hope that helps!

I have a customer that doesn't want cover in his ponds. There are a few stumps and that's about it. He constantly struggles with low fish population and thin fish. The fish are swimming all the time and not loafing, so they are like marathon runners burning up calories.



That's a 14" SMB that was 13 ounces.

I'm planning on putting tons of cover in the areas less than 8'. Just curious if something 12-15' below the surface would get much use.

Still digging away. Some of the deeper holes will be right around 15-17’ deep with total surface acreage right over 1/2 acre.

Don't you average over 50" of rain/year around your place?

I think 17' should be deep enough, unless you are going to have lots of incoming sediment and/or organic matter.

The carrying capacity of a pond is more strongly dependent on surface acres, rather than depth.

Either way - congrats on your pond build project getting closer to fruition!

We do, however it’s not costing me any extra so I’m just letting him dig away lol. If aerated I’d imagine that’d give me some cooler water year round?

More water depth for free? I think EVERYONE on Pond Boss would take that deal!

Is he still digging in good clay? You might check in the deepest couple of spots and confirm that you have not reached a sand or gravel layer.

There is some debate on Pond Boss, but I think aerating in summer from the deepest part of the pond results in a higher average pond temperature. Maybe aerate from 12' deep? Or the depth of your deepest structure? That way, your pond stays cooler, but the fish located on or near the deepest structure will be in the column of aerated water.

We are finally wrapping this project up. The dozer is finishing up the contouring today and Monday. Supposed to get several rains next week to add to the 2' thats already in the pond from the only real rain we've gotten since the initial hole was dug. . Unfortunately we've been really dry so i'm not sure how much run off will actually make it to the pond. My stocking plan now is to wait a couple weeks and test the water and then dump in some 3-5" BG with FHM and pellet feed all summer and let them make as many babies as possible. Thoughts?

May be optimistic. Your first rain(s) will disappear into the new dirt. Wait until you get a water level that is being sustained.

"Thoughts?"

Seed, seed, seed!

Any area of bare dirt that is done being run over by equipment should be seeded for erosion protection ASAP!

You want the first bit of fill up that makes it to the pond to be clean water, NOT silt-laden mud.

Congrats on your almost finished pond!

Well, the pond level has been set. Spill way is in and dirt work is almost completely finished. They just have one corner they have to dig out a little bit once it dries up enough to get trucks backed in to load them. Looking like we will be right at 1/3 acre, not the 1/2 I was hopeful for. He was concerned we wouldn't have enough water to fill up a much larger pond. Probably got 2-3 acre watershed right now. If in a year or two we have a full pond that stays full then It'll be easy enough to add 2' to the dam height.As it is the dam is only maybe 2-3' tall at most. That would get us right to 1/2 acre. We went ahead and dropped in the stumps we were saving. We've got 10-12 large stumps in 4-8' of water. Ready for this week of rain to hit and start hopefully putting some more water in the thing.

Yay on completing the pond!

10-12 stumps is what the bass call a "good start". Read the old structure threads and see if there are some good ideas that might work for your pond.

Structure - Pond Boss Archives


It is way easier to add structure now, compared to when the pond is full!

I'm adding a bunch of busted concrete and some more rock as well. .then sprinkling in some pallet structures. . The stumps are just what I required the excavators for. They're BIG stumps too, from 24" wide oak trees.

What do yall think of adding crayfish to a pond line mine? i know they can dig holes in dams, but my pond is 15' in the deeper corner with only 2-3' of that being from the actual dam. I plan on sprinkling in some small mouth once I get everything squared away. Not expecting any real reproduction, just wanted to get more variety.

I am a big thumbs up on adding crayfish. Especially with the areas of busted concrete. That should give them a refuge where they can have ongoing reproduction in the pond.

Make sure to read the some of the crayfish threads and get the right ones for your area. The preferred species burrow to a much lesser degree.

I need to find out what we have in the local river. They don't burrow as much i don't think. They just hide under rocks. Never seen their little tunnels there.

Yep, local is always good. Maybe catch a few and post them on the forum for identification. Fortunately, we do have some crayfish experts on PB.

Just found out all my local places that I can find wont sell fish until after summer. So I guess I wont be putting any BG in until then. I'd love to catch some locally and dump them in, but i just know i'd get some GSF in and mess it all up haha.

While I love crayfish in a pond, I'd wait to put them in until you have the underwater plants established. Adding the crayfish first will make adding plants later difficult.

Sounds good, i'll hold off then. Had a decent rain the last few days. Added a few inches to the couple feet that was in it. I'm going to get a rain gauge out there so I can start tracking it some.

We've got 4-6' of water in the pond depending on where you are standing. Yes, I walked out with a stick checking the depth haha. I'm going to dump a few (50 of each)RES and SBS in the pond next week along with a few pounds of FHM. My thinking is it'll give me and the boys something to feed this summer, but with the decreased surface of water in the pond I won't have to worry about huge spawns of fish taking up room.Then once the pond has more surface area I can dump in my Copper Nose and let them do their thing.

Since I'm FINALLY getting ready to stock I was thinking about how I wanted the pond to end up. I really want as much diversity in the pond as possible with a few fish frys a year. . My thinking is what if i did a SMB/YP/RES pond with some SBS and a few HSB and added some crawfish as additional forage forage. The SMB would eat off the crayfish, and some of the panfish fry, and then the HSB would take care of some of the larger panfish. With YP,SBS and RES I wouldn't have any huge spawns of panfish to control. Then every year once I get things settle I could just ladder stock a set amount of YP and SBS to keep the population up. Thoughts? I figured if it failed I could always dump in some LMB and Coppernose. I'd be fine stocking a couple hundred bucks worth of fish in the pond yearly.

IMO try your plan and please keep us updated in this thread as the progress of the fishery.

So it doesn't sound like a complete waste of time haha?

Your theories sound great, keep in mind tho, transporting and stocking fish in the heat of summer is tough, there will be some attrition.

Yea, i was hoping to have my initial stocking a good month ago at least. . but It is what it is at this point.

Got my first load of fish going in today. 75 RES, 75 specklebelly and 5 pounds of fat heads. So my understanding is I just need to set the bags in the pond water for 15-30 minutes to let the temps equalize and then just dump them in? I gotta put a couple pallet structures in for the FHM asap so they can start spawning. Thanks to our wet last couple weeks I have some grass going on the dam. So hopefully my water will start clearing up as I wash in less mud. It's nice to see everything finally get close to completion. How often would you plan to feed these fish? I'm assuming there is little to no food in my "mudhole" as of now, so I'd think the pellets will be almost there only source of food.

After tempering it wouldn’t hurt to mix pond water in bag after opening to kinda get the ph close to the same so not to ph shock them if ph is different

Got my fish in the pond yesterday. It was ungodly hot so I was expecting some casualties. Honestly i think quite a few died in the bag as they were tempering. Woke up to about 20 dead panfish. I didn't have high expectations for a perfect survival rate given the time of year. BUT, the majority of everything survived. Hopefully get some spawning FHM soon to replace what died.

Do you have an inventory of all the deaths?
What were the sizes of those fish that were added?.
What is the water clarity of the "mud hole"???.

Sometimes it is better to let the pond develop some water clarity and develop natural fish foods before stocking sport fish. Muddy turbid water suppresses plankton growth that is the basis of the food chain. Feeding some pellets could benefit those fish used to eating fish food otherwise the food goes uneaten and bulids unnecessary nutrients. FHM would be the 1st fish to find the pellets in a new muddy water pond. Start real slow until you see fish eating pellets; then gradually increase as more and more fish eat the food. Brand new small fish will not eat very many pellets each day. Many will eat no pellets and lose weight in a muddy water pond.

I ended up only getting RES and FHM. The RES were 2-3" with most being closer to 3". They didn't have any speckle on the truck. So about 20 dead RES out of 150, and 30-40 FHM out of the 5#. Visibility is about 1'. I'm going to let the pond just keep filling and clear up before doing anything else this fall. Hopefully a couple months will help it clear up. I've started to get good grass coverage on a good portion of the dirt around it. Should cut down on the mud some.

Depending on pond conditions and type of clay bottom and amount of exposed shoreline to wind action, it may take 1 to a few years for the clarity to achieve 4 to 5 ft of water visibility. Almost always the pond is clearest in late winter or early spring. Ice melt is usually the clearest water for us in NW Ohio.