Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Adding HSB into Grandpa's farm pond?

First, hello to everyone. I've been reading as much as I can on this site for the last couple of months. Thanks to all for the wealth of information. I do not have a pond of my own yet, but I'm hoping to build one within the next few years.(we just had our first child) For now, I was wondering if I could enhance an existing pond that I have access to.

I'll start with some background info. One of my grandfathers has an old 1.5 acre farm pond that I grew up fishing. I had a blast, but it's badly silted in and nothing like it was 20 years ago. My other grandfather, however, built an approximately 2.75 acre pond about 15 years ago. He claims that he had it dug 15' deep on the dam end. It's in an open pasture that cattle graze. I'm sure it's silted in somewhat by now, too. He had a fish truck stock LMB and BG. I doubt that many, if any, fish have ever been taken out of the pond.

The point I'm getting at is that now I'm back to my roots in Indiana after a stint in Colorado, and I'd like to spend a little time fishing in that 2.75 acre pond. I caught one pretty nice LMB the one time I fished it, but that's probably been 10 years ago. Also, I discovered how much fun HSB are this spring/summer- which is part of what lead me to this site. Does anyone think such a neglected BOW would be at all suitable for a supplemental stocking of HSB? If so, should I wait for water temps to come down in the fall before adding some? Or should I wait even longer and put them in in the springtime so they'll have a whole growing season in front of them? I'm thinking 20-40 per year for the next few years could potentially make that a fun pond until I can attain my own, and would like to get started this season if possible.

Also, any other general suggestions on improving that BOW, or other additional fish that might be a fun addition would be quite welcome. Many thanks in advance.

jason, welcome to the forum!

Before you stock any fish, I would double check the depth of the pond and do an assessment on the predator/prey balance in the pond. For instance if the bass are stunted, that means that there isn't enough food to go around to grow the predators that are already in the pond. So adding another predator would be a bad idea.

Even if there are enough forage fish in the pond, I would wait until the end of September to start stocking fish. The water is too hot now, and transporting/acclimating/stocking the fish during the summer really puts a lot of stress on them. You could have them all die within a week just due to the stress of being hauled and stocked in warm weather.

Thank you very much for the input. That seems like perfect advice. We're supposed to be back down in Decatur County this weekend- I'll have to convince the wife that I need to do a little "research" and go drop a line in that pond. If it seems like the existing LMB are lean with low RW, which I don't doubt is likely, any suggestions on something to improve the forage base that won't just be an expensive snack? Obviously, taking some out would be good, but I don't know how many bass I could fish out in just a couple hours from a nearly 3 acre pond...

If they are stunted and overpopulated, and haven;t seen a lot of fishing pressure, I'd bet you could catch quite a few in 3 hours.

The cold front on Friday will make fishing tougher on Saturday though. Sunday would be a better day if you had to pick one day to fish.