Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose time of year for stocking BG, RES, FH

My first and last post on this site was about 5 years ago when I wass looking for property to retire to and build a pond on. Well I finally found what I was looking for in western Kentucky, about 45 minutes northwest of Bowling Green. I bought 74 acres of heavily wooded property and cleared about 3 to 4 acres for the home site, gardens, and of course a pond. The pond is about .25 of an acre, I plan on learning from my mistakes on this pond and then build another one that will be about 2 acres.
O.K. now my question. The pond is probably full or close to it(I am still living in Chicago because my house has not sold yet)with the rain that the internet says they have been getting, so I called the closest fish hatchery to the property asking about BG, RES, and FH and the man said that they do not have any at this time because it is a bad time of year to stock a pond. What would the problem be with stocking fish in July or August? I wanted to get them in the pond let them grow, winter over and spawn in the spring so that I could stock the LMB next summer. Should I just wait until fall?
Even though I have not posted anything in years, I spend alot of time on this site and I have learned alot. This is an awesome site.

Here, here! A lot of us do that - learn from the mistakes of the first pond and correct on the second - but how many realize and plan for it ahead of time?

The problem with Summer stocking, especially commercial stocking, is that it's hot and sunny. IMHO most fish stockers don't load up the truck with one pond's worth of fish and drive straight to that pond - they load up the truck full of as many fish as they can deliver that day, hopefully (for them) on a more or less circular route that lets them get fish to your pond and a number of others in a time- and fuel-efficient manner.

So your fish may be on the truck all day; I would think an average load of fish is on the truck a half a day. And the whole time they are on the truck, they are warming up. In July and August (and, farther South, the juxtaposed months), the fish just get too darn hot for most of them to survive the trip.

Fear not - your presumably (safely so, I should think, stuck inside during a West Pennsyltuckio rainstorm) water-filled pond is also filling with life, as the volunteer plankton and invertebrate food chain, upon which those BG, RES, and FHM will someday depend, establishes itself for you. So when you do stock those forage base fingerlings, be it this Fall or next Spring, they will have enough to eat to grow rapidly and spawn better.

I recommend forage fish this Fall or next Spring, LMB Fall 2008 or Spring 2008. Patience is another thing we have to learn with our first pond.

Thanks for the quick reply, you guys are great.
So it seems to me that if I were to pick up the fish myself and transport them in an air conditioned car they would survive the trip and be O.K. I am usually fairly patient, but it is killing me not to have fish in the pond. The trick is finding someone to buy the fish from. Does anybody know of a hatchery that is just a couple of hours away from Greenville, Ky.? Greenville is the closest city/town to my property. I have checked the internet, but I can't seem to find any.

Transporting is not the only problem. This is July and the pond water can be pretty warm. You would have to very carefully acclimate them. It would be killing me, too. But, it might be better to wait a couple of months.

I have to stock some grass carp for a guy next week and I'm sweating bullets.

Thanks for the advice. I guess I will wait for the fall. It will be a good leason in patience.

When I do stock the pond I was going to put in 200 BG, 50 RES, and 2# of FHM. From what I have read in the PB mag. and on this site those seem to be the right numbers to start the food chain for a balanced LMB and BG pond. I am seeking good numbers of 2 to 3 pound LMB and some BG about 8 or 9 inches. Does this seem right and/or doable in a 1/4 acre pond? The pond is 12 feet deep at the dam and averages about 6 feet deep with a shelf 6 feet wide around the pond at 3 feet deep.

That sounds quite attainable to me for a midwestern pond.