Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Can you overstock forage fish?

Hello all,

I'm looking at a beautiful ranch in East Texas that has (2) 30 acre+/- lakes on them. One is 36 years old and the other 12 years old.

My thoughts are to first hire one of the esteemed PB Gurus's to evaluate the lakes and go from there.

My main question is...can you overstock an existing lake? For example 2000-3000 shad per acre instead of the recommended 1000...etc?

This is just so I can dream until the purchase is complete...

Your thoughts and suggestions are appreciated..

Dog

I am the same way!

I would think as long as they all had things to eat and pleanty of oxygen, clean water, etc it would be fine. But there is a limit to all good things.

The survey will tell you all you need to know, but like you say for the dreaming part, I say dream big.

Some pro's should be along to answer this soon.

depends 100% on goals, if growing big bass is goal hard to stock too much forage. I like the way you think have shockboat and will travel.

That's great info, my goal would be to grow big bass.

I intend to use Vertex aeration systems unless told otherwise, at least one of the lakes has a good bed of natural springs providing fresh water at a constant flow. And that's about all I know before the experts get out there.

Greg I can't wait to see that boat in action! Cool stuff!

I am no expert but if you need help in the "evaluation process" I have a rod and will travel.

Yes it is possible to overstock any fish type. The problem is carrying capacity. See this link from the archives.
http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92440#Post92440

Find out what's in lakes first. Conducting a survey is a great way to determine size structures. Something we can help with as well.

Then we make corrective stocking recommendations. There's a possibility that you would have to remove fish before being able to stock additional forage.

It is possible to overstock forage fish, especially shad. Shad will actually not reproduce if too many are present.

Many fish species exhibit reproductive suppression - shad included. That is not necessarily a good situation as it is usually associated with stunted or unbalanced fish population structure.

I feel you can over stock forage. Remember whatever goes in needs to eat and puts out waste. You can still achieve what you want by stocking 1,000 per acre per year for three years to reach your 3,000 per acre goal. After that you let it ride and see if your investment continues to repopulate itself the following years. This has always been our philosophy, to establish self sustaining populations of both predators and forage. Sometimes the forage bases need a little boost, but for the most part this approach works and alleviates having to stock every year. The first dollars I would spend are getting a comprehensive evaluation of the water, fish population and habitat/vegetation present.

One thing to keep in mind and I know nothing about your possibility of fluctuating water levels, depths, etc.

30 acres can become 10 acres under some conditions during a really hot dry summer. In that case your biomass numbers can reach critical levels with a possible dissolved oxygen crash.

Need a whole lot more information.

Dave

That's a awesome pont right there! Good stuff! I never even had that in mind while reading this post. That you may stock your pond for a 30 acre pond and then is becomes 15 acres then what??? Double the fish trying to live in half the water. That equation just does not sound good no matter how you look at it.

James

I need to evaluate my HSB, YP, SMB, RES and CSBG in my main pond and Magnolia Crappie in one of my lil ponds - is Lincoln too far for you?