Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Hello from TX!

Hello everyone!

My dad and I work together to manage our family's ranch in North Texas. We have been managing for primarily hunting the last 10+ years but starting this year we are turning are attention to the fisheries that exist in the different bodies of water on the property. After fishing a few of the ponds over the last few weeks and lurking on Pond Boss in that same time, I will ask the first of many questions here.

Two of the ponds I have fished in the last week have been found to only contain GSF. Each pond is between 0.3-0.4 acres and heavily vegetated. Pond A has over 50% lilypad cover in the summer while Pond B is thick with algae until 10ft from the shore. Depth of each is unknown at this point.

Pond A is a pond that is closest to our building site and I think it would be a great opportunity as a put and take pond for CC. I think it would be a treat for my kids to go out and "catch dinner". I am assuming I could stock 8" or so CC (or the biggest size to avoid consumption by GSF) and not have to do much else? The pond would not be fed as I am hoping the existing forage base of GSF and whatever else would sustain a put and take catfish operation.

Pond B is unique in that it is the only pond on the ranch that is not a dark mix of oak tannins or red dirt. Throughout the pond you can see a depth of 2-3 feet. It is for the reason I think it would be really cool to have a single predatory "pet" fish. It hopefully wouldn't demolish the GSF forage base and the clear water could make for some cool viewing. My initial thought was a Gar species since they stay closer to the surface and would lend itself better for viewing pleasure, but am open to some more imaginative guesses.

I imagine I could add some BG to either pond to increase forage if need be as well as long as they are bigger than the GSF mouths.

Thank you!

Welcome to PB posting.