Well for some reason I am calling it dumb luck the original minnows we stock the pond with Emerald shiners from a bait store have managed to re populate in our pond. I understand this is not quite normal for a small pond.
When I was first wanting to stalk the pond I dropped into this site and was flooded with great information. I learned I needed to add my minnows first and give them a years time and when I do stock predator fish to stock pellet trained fish so they lay off the minnows that much longer so they can re populate.
I learned from Bill Cody that Yellow Perch like a challenge when catching minnows or the fact that if the minnow is quick it has a better chance of survival in a pond with little cover. So off to the bait shop to get as many Emerald shiners we could load into our big rubber made totes.
The first stocking minnows we had 50/50 Emerald shiners and common shiners three years ago. These common shiners really showed the color on the top as emerald but did not have the tail or larger eye. More of a square tail smaller eye and seem to be a bit slower swimmers.
Below is some pictures of the Emerald shiners that have some how re populated in out pond. The pictures shows different sizes and I would guess to say they are 2.5" to 3" in size. We did have some much larger ones in the trap on the 16th but we let them go. I would say they were more in the 4-5" range. The larger 4-5" ones I expect are the original stocked from three years ago. Interesting fact. These what I am calling emerald shiners will freeze or completely stop moving if you put them on their back. When we let them go back into the pond there was a few that ended on their backs. We had to flip them over so they could swim away.
![[Linked Image from corvettejunkie.com]](http://www.corvettejunkie.com/pb.gif)
