Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations New pond stocking question.

Hello, I am new to this forum and am looking for some input and advise. I live in southeast Iowa and had a new pond constructed on my property in the fall of 2010. The pond filled up the next spring and I have signed up for the Iowa DNR farm pond program. They provide fingerling bluegill, largemouth bass and channel catfish for almost no cost. The pond is about an acre and a half. It is about 15 feet at the deepest. In September of 2011 the DNR supplied me with 1,500 bluegill to stock in the pond. The fish were about half an inch to an inch long. This spring they will supply 105 largemouth bass about 1 inch long and 150 channel catfish about 2 inches long. I have the option of not stocking the CC. My question is should I stock the CC. I am looking for a balanced pond where I can take my kids fishing. It is also important to me to be able to catch a mess of fish to eat. I would like to be able to fish for black crappie but probably won't stock them because from what I have read they either don't do very well and you end up with very few but large crappie or they overpopulate and become stunted. What happens most of the time is they overpopulate and become stunted. Does anyone have an idea how many crappie you would have to remove each year to keep them from becoming stunted? Attached is an aerial photo of the pond.

You might consider waiting a year after the bass are stocked and putting in 15-20 medium sized CC. Not sure how many of the 150 fingerling cats would survive to adulthood but that sounds like alot. Also with a lower number of CC the bass population will be stronger with better weights.

I would'nt totally give up your idea of stocking black crappie. maybe wait to stock them when your bass reach adulthood. Having a good number of adult bass would help control the crappie #s.

Having 3 or 4 different species would be fun for kids to fish and done right the pond could stay balanced.

Channel Cats are relatively inexpensive, even for advanced sized stockers, so you can put them in any time down the line. Granted, they might not be 'free' like from the DNR.

Some advocate waiting a full year of stocking bluegill before putting in the LMB. You might also want to consider stocking fathead minnows and perhaps golden shiners in the spring, if you can push the LMB off 'til the Fall of '12.

Regarding crappie, my personal opinion is that the most important thing is knowing all the ups and downs of having crappie so you can take the right actions to manage them.

Oh, by the way, welcome to the site. Your pond looks great.

I live in Central Iowa and used the DNR suggestions for BG, Bass, and CC stocking and times to stock for my new pond.

My pond is awesome and well balanced. I would not deviate from what they Iowa DNR suggest. They have been doing this for a long time and like I said...... I have an excellent 4 anchor pond of large fish in my third year and would not change one thing.

Nice looking BOW there! Welcome aboard Hawkeye - love to see more Iowa members.

There are members here who successfully manage their smallish BOWs for crappie, BZ from MN comes to mind. So, it can be done, but you'd need to research the forum archives thoroughly prior to making any decisions about stocking them as Sunil recommends.

I have a smallish BOW [about 2 AC] and stocked a BC/WC hybrid. The scant research available I was able to consider suggests the hybrid BC offspring are genetically inferior and won't pose the same overpopulation risk as straight BC or WC. Thus far I have not seen evidence of a spawn in my ponds, but it's coming up on year 3 of the experiment so I can't advise one way or another as it's far too early for me to provide any reliable information. I sure hope they fit into my fishery management plan, though.

In terms of your stocking plans, I'm not experienced with LMB. I do second the call for FHM and possibly GSH stocking to serve as additional forage, and also to delay LMB until they can both reproduce a few times. I would also suggest stocking up to 500 RES as a bonus panfish and also to help control snails/grub issues.

Here's a crappie post that may be helpful to review before you make any stocking decisions.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=20667&Number=265704#Post265704

CC - I would suggest if you want to eat them and have some good fishing with them only put half of what they recommend in, easy to control and then you can always add more as you see fit. They do eat BG so they complete with LMB when they get larger. This will decrease your LMB food supply of course. Just more for you to think about.

BC - I have 7ac pond and it has BC. When we stocked them we didn't know any better. As you have said and read, 7ac isn't large enough for them. As far as removing them. Here is an example of removing them. Last year (2011) we ice fished about 5 times and fished spring to fall in WI until sept a total of 32 times. We were able to remove a total of 292 BC. Most of the time there was 2 people fishing. A couple times was just 1 person. Of course Spring they are easy to catch since they are spawning but I personally don't think you can fish them out. You have to electro or fyke net them. Again more for you to think about.

Also, BEAUTIFUL BOW!!

Thank you everyone for your replies. Matt I have a question for you. How big were the bluegill the next summer after you stocked them and when were they big enough to catch and eat? Also if anyone is interested I have some pictures of the pond during and after construction that I could post.