Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose new pond stocking

Hi I have a newly renovated pond that is 3/4 to one acre and at its deepest point is 20 feet. And I am wanting to make it a largemouth pond. And it is fed by run off from a pond from some whear very far away making it a large river every time it rains. but the probelm is the run off carries a lot of trash fish including white crappie and black bullheads. Is thear any way to keep thease fish out of my pond or at least keep them at bay to have a good largemouth pond. And if so what sould I stock.

thanks I appreciate any help

You're gonna have a hard time keeping "trash fish" out of your pond if the water source that feeds it is coming out of another pond as you described... Particularly if there is high water flows during rain events.

You may just have to learn to work around the added fish species. It is not impossible to overcome the addition of certain "trash fish" in a LMB pond. You just have to keep that in mind. Have you done a fish inventory of your pond to see what species you have and what their abundance and size structures are? That maybe a good starting point.

Once you know what fish you are gonna be dealing with, you can work from there. You can still have a great LMB pond with the fish you talk about being present, you just have to manage it differently...

I am sure the experts will chime in soon enough! Another option maybe to find the owner of the rogue pond and see if they would be interesting in starting over with their pond and killing off all the "trash fish". Then you can both start new and you will not have to worry about "trash fish" from his pond washing into yours...

Stock the pond from the start with adult bass, advanced or adult HSBs, and optional blue cats/channel cats in small numbers, along with sexually mature bluegill, redear, tilapia, and golden shiners. Start a feeding program with high protein(40%+) feed. Manage for good water quality (aerate), control submerged aquatic vegetation. Catch and release for large predators. Restock feedtrained lmb and other predators as needed to maintain the populations long-term.

Where are you in TX? Describe the appearance of your water, muddy, clear, green, dark?

Thank you for your help

And I do know the amounts of fish and types when we drained the pond originally we did so to kill the trash fish and when it was empty we planed to get any good fish out and planed to put them in other ponds because in the past it had been a great LMB pond we have caught an 8 and a couple of 5 pound LMG. but when it was empty it was mainly small BG, Crappie, black bull heads. We also got some big short nosed gar and gizzard shad. But the sad thing was thier was only 4 LMG in the pond but they were all Florida strain.

I have also heard of putting Hybrid striperes in the pond to controll the crappie, BG and gizzard shad.

does anybody have any advice thank you.

I live in north East Texas near Denton. The water is dark green.
And I plan to start a feeding program soon. do you think think threadfin shad would do well in a pond about3/4 of an acre.

Thank you.

Shad may do very well in this pond, if it is indeed naturally fertile and deep.

Welcome Texas Fish:
I wonder if you set a record and became a Lunker sooner than anyone else? If you haven't learned of the magazine yet, I highly recommend it, it has helped me a lot, and the people on this forum are just great in helping people like us find solutions to our various problems. This is a very unique group of people and a great family to join as well. Good luck with your pond down there in big beautiful warm Texas!

thanks to bad its freezing down hear lately

SE Pond Mgt has done a series of studies on ponds to grow nice crappie and HSB. The first results have been good. They start with TShad , FH and GShiners and add crappie and HSB. I will find the link.


From http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...06bd#Post102167

Southeastern Pond Management reports in its client newsletter excellent success (so far) with Crappie in Southern ponds. This is the same company that one of our PB Convention speakers (Dr. Jeff Slipke) works for. He also provided the PB Forum through Dave Willis info on SMB in Southern ponds. The newsletter contains an article on that as well.

Back to the article on Crappie. With research from reservoirs on HSB feeding they found what we know that the HSB ate a lot of TShad. They also found that HSB eat a lot of young crappie. With that info they decided to try that application on some test ponds. They started with a clean pond and added TShad , GShiners and FH in the fall. The next spring they stocked BC fingerlings followed by HSB in the fall. Over the next 4 years they saw fast growth among the crappie with little crappie recruitment. No sign of the usual problems with crappie in ponds. They then created more ponds like the first and report that electrofishing results are very promising - slab crappie with no overpopulation and - yes the HSB are doing well. A pic of one of the HSB appears to be about 8 lbs. A pic of one of the crappie looks to be about 1.5 to 2 lbs.

Update - additional info on this idea -

North American Journal of Fisheries Management
Fish Community Response to Hybrid Striped Bass Introduction in Small Warmwater Impoundments
J. Wesley Neal*, Richard L. Noble, and James A. Rice


Results from this study suggest hybrid striped bass may have consumed enough small black crappies to prevent overpopulation without eliminating recruitment. However, further study is warranted using a larger number of ponds and differing conditions. If these results can be replicated, enhancing crappie fisheries while simultaneously creating a hybrid striped bass fisheries would be a favorable alternative to complete pond reclamation.

Ya I had seen that do you think you could through in a few LMB to and have a good crappie HSB and LMG. fisherie

Somebody needs to try that up North, at least beyond the area where Threadfin Shad can be used.

with the fish overton sugested how many and how much should I stock and at what time to have a good LMG and HSB population.

thank you

Texas Fish,

I would give Todd a call and he'll take care of you. His recommendations will be based on a lot of personal experience in your area. Google overton fisheries for his contact info. He's given me lots of good advice with regards to HSB.