Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain raising minnows

I want to raise minnows for bait when fishing at our pond. Has anyone successfully sectioned off a small part of their pond or made a free standing structure where minnows have been able to live and reproduce? If so how and what "netting/screening" material did you use.

Also were the minnows able to survive the winter?

kevin

Been there done that. Problem with this is that small bass (1"-2") get thru the mesh of "fenced area". These bass grow and thrive WITHIN the fenced area. Pretty soon your minnow numbers start to appear low.

If you use really small mesh fence then algae clogs the mesh and you have a mess & additional problems.

kevin, I am wanting to start raising some fatheads next year and have two ideas. One is an aerated stock tank in the barn and the other is a seperate, smaller 5-6' deep koi pond that will feed the waterfall into the main pond. I would think the stock tank might work best as the water temp would be a bit cooler in the barn and it would be easier to dip for bait, but who knows. Fatheads around here are pretty cheap I get them for $7/lb and usually put in 20 lbs in the spring and another 20 in the fall for a tasty snack. Since I will be putting in a koi pond/waterfall feature anyway I will more than likely just add in a few lbs of fats and see what happens. I'll just have to set a trap when I need some bait. Good luck.

Dumper, Fatheads are extremely prolific and can foul the water quickly. No matter what direction you go, be prepared to change the water often and to release a bunch of them. Forage ponds can be a lot of work. I put a pound of fatheads and 100 bluegills in a 1/5 acre pond in the early spring. By the next year the water was nasty looking green and almost devoid of life. We had seined twice to get forage for a neighbors pond. Until I quit messing with it, I had a gold mine. However, they soon overspawned and everything was gone.

Dave, that shouldn't be much of a problem. I'm an aquarist from way back and if I go the stock tank route I will add adequate filtration and treat it pretty much like an aquarium. I should have mentioned filtration in the previoues post. In the koi pond I will try first without a filter and see what happens, it might require one also. Thanks for the reminder.

I was thinking of trying an above ground swimming pool to grow some fatheads for the summer. There are used ones cheap and you can start fresh each year. I was thinking about 3 feet deep and 20-30 feet across. I would pump it full of water from the pond so the nutrients would be in the water at the start. Any body ever tried this? I am trying to think outside the box.