Hello,
I finished my pond about 5 months ago.
First problem started days after the pond was finally filled.
Algae growth. That problem has been solved.
I added and 1/2 horsepower dual piston pump combined with 3 dual membrane diffusers and weighted tubing for aeration. It's a nice system. I have a 4 inch water well with a 3 horsepower pump. The discharge is 2 inch, expanded to 4 inch pipe going to the pond to relieve back pressure, flowing about 125 gallons per minute or more. Does a beautiful job. I can raise water levels fairly quickly.
My pond is well over an acre and averages probably 12 feet deep with some places dropping off to 16-18 feet deep. But I don't know its exact size.
I stocked it with 2000 coppernose bream, and 500 red ears about 3-4 months ago. They grew like crazy. They range from 3-5 inches now and they got WIDE. They have spawned and I have thousands of little ones all over the pond along with about a million fat head minnows, they spawned like crazy. I have crawfish/creyfish here naturally. The entire pond and into the yard has crawfish chimneys everywhere, and you can see crawfish of all sizes take off from the edges of the pond as you walk around it. They are everywhere.
I'm putting my bass in this fall. Like within 45 days or so.
I plan to stock F1 strain Florida bass. My plan is to stock 50-70 of them. Probably the lower number. But I want to put some Hybrid striped bass in there too. You know to have a variety. Plus the hybrids will get really large and they are damn fun to catch. I'm told that within a few years it's not unusual to hook a 6-10 pound striped bass. I would like to add about 25 of them to the pond.
I was told just today, do not add striped hybrids. Which conflicts with what American sport fish told me. American sport fish is of the opinion that 25 hybrid stripers would enhance my sport fishing. Whereas the local fisheries, says I'll ruin my pond.
What do you guys think. It would be good to hear from those of you who have experience with this type of stocking method.
thanks in advance.
One of the 3 rock beds as we were doing some enlarging. This was taken from a parking lot that was busted up and re-layed. All in all I have about 30 truck loads in three areas of the pond.
