Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Blank Slate...

I was walking through the girlfriend's ranch last week and saw a pond that is around 1/10th of an acre and is chock full of gambusia minnows. Water is about 15ft at the deepest and has never gone dry. As near as I can tell, there are no predators whatsoever. I am looking for suggestions on what to stock so that my 5 year old can enjoy fishing. Feeding isn't easy, so I am looking for something that won't require a whole lot of feed and won't be too prone to stunting. I look forward to hearing suggestions.

How about RES? Only sunfish known to not stunt in a pond.

Yeah my vote would be RES for that small of a pond. You could put 30 or so in there and have a great time with your 5 year old. Nothing more fun to me still to this day then fishing light tackle with a worm and a float and catching fish one after another!!

Put a nightcrawler on a small hook and verify there are no other predators first.

Also maybe put in a couple male Hybrid Bluegill to control the RES offspring. I would think any fish that reproduces in a pond would stunt given enough time.

I vote for RES and a few HSB

In a 1/10th of an acre pond, a few dozen RES and ONE LMB could work. That lone LMB should be able to control all offspring the RES would produce. Or, instead of the LMB, you could consider a small and I mean small number of CC. Perhaps 5 or so... I think HSB would probably struggle without supplemental feed, no aeration and a pond so small. If you are confident in your ability to ID males from females, an all male BG pond would be an excellent idea as well...

I know there are no predators, because there are more than 1 minnow per square inch on the surface. Really crazy to see. I had heard to do the hybrid bluegill. I like the idea of one Largemouth. Any other ideas?

RES + 1 LMB would probably work just fine. My dad owns a place near Seguin that had a 1/10 acre pond on it. It was a mess of stunted GSF. We put in a single LMB at about 10". Fishing the pond 8-9 months later yielded a much more satisfactory population of catchable GSF.

Ended up putting in around 40-50 GSF x BG hybrids. Gambusia minnows go nutty for the fish pellets and then the hybrids come a feeding on pellets and minnows. Waiting another month or so and then I will try a cane pole and some red worms.

Sounds good.

Should be some decent fishing for them in a month or two for your kid