Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Several Fish ....

Rock Bass:
I never hear any discusion on these fish I know there has to be some sort of negative reason on why people do not stock these fish. I'm trying to build a 9 acre lake that is about 32 feet deep. In middle Ga area...Why would these fish not work.

Pumpkin and Redbreast sunfish:
The only negative I read is that they don't grow very big and they might over populate..but is this really a problem?? It sounds like good forage for LMB to me..would love to stock these fish as well....

Thanks

Most people envision a pond as a place to catch the next world record bass or some other type of sport fish. And to get to that goal, they advise to not stock anything that competes with bass or their favorite target. That includes crappie, green sunfish, rock bass and other fish with large mouths. I think Rock Bass are beautiful fish but then I think Green Sunfish are a lot prettier than bluegill. However, I still toss them on the bank.

You will read this on almost every post: what are your goals? Who will fish your lake? Are there different groups? Are you looking for fish to eat? I have both rock bass and pumkinseeds and would take them over bluegills. They suit my goals better. Look at the discussion about high diversity vrs. low diversity for some ideas.

Big Pond, I'm not sure what type of fishing you normally do, but around here rock bass, or redeyes as well call them, are most common in rivers and streams. For me there's nothing worse than driving or walking up to a perfect hole for smallies only to find it over ran with redeyes. For little kids it can be fun to catch a little 6-10in fish every cast, but for me, sportfishing is what I'm about. From what I've read of your previous posts on blues and channels, it seems to me you want big fish. As in rivers, redeyes will outcompete your baby bass and bluegill and will most likely overpopulate. For me, thats not what I want.

As for pumpkinseed and redbreast, I'm really not familiar with these species. However, you said what's wrong with them not getting big and overpopulating. At one time I was asking myself the same question. But you hafta look at it from the bottom up. If you have thousands of 4in pumpkinseeds, then what do they eat? They have to compete with your bluegill. This overpopulation of "sunfish" is gonna cause stress at the base of the food chain. BGs are gonna start eating your bass fry and your from there your bass will suffer. Not only that but also think about this. If your goal is trophy bass, how long will it take a bass to get to trophy size feeding on only 3-4in gills and seeds? Quite a long time I believe.

Hopefully some of the others will chime in some more. Bob Lusk once told me, "...If that's okay with you, then that's okay with me." So really pond management is in your hands and is your decisions, but as Norm said, you need to assess your goals and determine exactly what you want to do.

Chris

Well Guys I really was not considering stock Rock Bass, just saw it doing some surfing and thought why have we not heard of these fish in Pond management? What are the pit falls to these guys, can they take cold or hot wheather?

It seem as I do more study of lake and pond management, you find other fish can do more damage than others. I am studying much as possible on different species to educate my self and, also if I want to add a new species, I will know the pros and cons. But as I said before, you find some species do more damage than others, for example: Flatheads vs Channels, Coppernose vs White Crappie, Shellcracker vs Greensunfish ect.....

My goals?? High diversty as possible with out sacrificing too much LMB management...I'v been doing some reading on these Hybrid stripped Bass and they seem very intresting.

Most likely will not stock Rock Bass or Pumpkinseed, but would like to stock RedBreast sunfish once the lake is done..
any more comments?

tritonvt hit the nail on the head quoting bob, if its okay with you its okay with me.

Rock Bass can handle quite a range of water quality and temperature. However they are similar to Green Sunfish in that they have a large mouth relative to their body and can compete directly with smaller LMB for forage. Also they just never get very big. Fun for kids but tiresome for adults if you are looking to catch something substantial.