Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Shad

Hi
I have a pond that was built in the Fifties it is a 1\2 acre about 10ft at its deepest. I was wanting to add shad for forage for the lmb. Would this be a good forage for the bass or would they take over my pond? Thanks

Koda,

I hate to see a post go unanswered, so I'll take a shot at yours.

I'm experienced with two kinds of shad for pond forage: threadfin and gizzards. Threadfin do not survive water temps below about 42 degrees, so you would probably not expect to see any survival next spring in your pond. However, they would make a very good snack, albeit expensive ones, for your LMB.

The gizzards have been noted to grow to large sizes in small ponds without adequate predation. I have them stocked in a 4 acre pond with HSB and LMB and they are doing fine, but would hesitate at stocking them in 1/2 acre pond because of their tendency to overtake small waters with many large gizzards.

If you do a search on topics on threadfin and gizzard shad, you will find several posts, mostly on threadfins. Not many folks on here, other than myself and a few others, have stocked gizzard shad in their ponds.

Koda:

Do you already have or have you considered Golden Shiners as a Bass forage species? They will not die off in Winter water (unlike TShad) and they top out at about 9"-10", so you don't have to worry about them getting too big (like GShad).

Thanks Guys For the reply's
The shad I was thinking of stocking was Gizzard. So I will rethink that and maybe go with the golden shinners. Does anyone know where to get these golden shinners? I am in eastern Ky.
By the way this is a great site...