Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking in turbid / muddy water , New pond

Mix some annual rye grass in with the grass seed. Annual rye will sprout fast help hold soil while the other grasses (fescues) get started. During the first winter the annual rye will freeze out. Get your grass planted as soon as the frost is out of the ground - it will sprout when the temperature is right.

Fatheads will begin spawning as soon as your water temps reach 60F - measure your surface water temps coming out of ice cover. IMO expect FHM to begin spawning in Cincy area the first 10 days of April and continue until the water temps drop below 60-65F. FHM will survive OK in silty turbid water and spawn okay as long as underwater spawning substrates are available.

IMO you can stock fingerling YP (3"-6") and RES 2"-4" with or very soon after the FHM. Fingerlings will survive in the turbid & trending toward clear water as grass cover increases. Over this winter even with some turbidity, numerous types of invertebrates will naturally colonize and begin growing. Their numbers will rapidly increase after the ice melts to provide foods for the YP-RES fingerlings.

Stock your HBG,SMB,HSB sometime in fall. This will give the YP-RES a head start to provide a very good forage base for the fall stocked fish. YP&RES will spawn in spring of 2018. Be leary of fish farms pushing the adding the HBG,SMB,HSB in the spring with FHM which will detract from rapid growth that will be seen for these fall stocked fish. Remember to buy a little (4-6 lbs) fish food when you get your fall stocker fish to get them feeding well and fat going into winter. Fish farms that are not willing to sell you less than a full bag of food are IMO greedy and not in your best interest. Avoid them. A good fish farm (Shelby Fish Farm Anna OH) north of you that has a very helpful and co-operative owner is a good place to buy. Just call first and show up with some money and he will send you home with bagged, healthy fish and a portion of food for the fish. He also sells good aeration items reasonable.

IMO it would be better to add the bonus trout in Oct-Nov of 2017 rather than this spring, but both could work. Expect the 8"-10" bonus trout stocked in October to grow to 14"-15" before they die in Jun-Jul of 2018. This assumes you aerate the pond to keep some water open close to shore and feed the trout pellets in the open water on sunny winter days.