Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Stocking FH over the winter.

Hi

My pond is new and about .25 of an acre right now. That's about all it filled befor everything froze up. Curently its deepest point is about 7'. No vegitation had started yet. I did put in about 30 3-4" wallies with about 8lbs of of fat heads. We only got about 13" of ice this year so there should be plenty of water under the ice. I am concerned with stocking any more fish befor ice out in another month. Not sure of D.O levels. It is a new pond with nothing in it other the test fish and a few feild stone piles for cover. I do have a lot of back swimmers. Are these insects a good sign for D.O. levels? Do you guys think I'm Ok to get more FH going befor Ice out? Thanks for any responses.

As it seems that no one has responded yet, I would think that you could add fatheads into the water through the ice, however, I would think that they would be naturally disoriented so much so that they would be the proverbial "deer in the headlights" and make for easy prey.

I would think that you might have more success of some survival by putting them in an secured area where they could have some acclimation time without Ole Wally eying them down.

There was some other discussions on the forum of how forage fish did better in warm water stockings when they had a chance to acclimate, in the pond, for several hours without the threat of predation.

If you were just putting the fatheads in for easy, rapid meals for the walleyes, then I would go for it.