Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking a new pond with RES, YP and SMB

Some comments.
1. The main negative with the spotfin and BNM is they need lots of cover to withstand predation from SMB, thus I know of no ponds where they maintain populations with reproducing SMB. SMB can be "death" on small forage fish. I have seen GS maintain breeding adults (8"+) with SMB, YP and RES with moderate weed cover.

2. With SMB you can't have too many crayfish. With a strong SMB population one has a hard time maintaining crays.

3. Shelby Farm is a good source for fish. I know his source for his YP - great fish. For his larger fish 6"-8", the majority of them, maybe 60%-70% will be females from the 2013 year class and some from the 2012 hatch depending on how he has held them. The 9"+ ones would be mostly females from the 2012 year class. You are correct if the YP are good pellet eaters they will not prey heavily on minnows or small YP. Expect most of the 3"-5"ers in your case to survive. IMO I would buy at least 50 3"-5", just to get a good group of male YP. His larger YP will eat mostly FHM minnows before eating small 3"-4" YP. IMO if you feed Shelby fish pellets you will not notice a loss of minnows or small YP the first year. After YP and SMB spawn then loss of small fish will be more apparent.

4. Spawn substrate for YP can be Fishiding or most any type of structure. Actually you want very few egg strands to hatch and survive at least until your SMB spawn once. Then with SMB, the small YP become more important to the fishery. I like to use removable tree limbs for YP spawning so I can monitor how many YP egg strands I am getting, removing, and ones allowed to hatch.