Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose 15 acre pond

tyw33- I am not a big advocate of SMB with bgill but Lake Doctor has said it worked well in several ponds that he has stocked. I wanted to make sure you were of aware of it and explored this combination before discrediting it. You need to talk to him about the pros and cons and talk to some of the pondowners that have used it esp people with ponds similiar in size to yours. As I said in past posts I don't think SMB are suitable predators on bgill for reason given previously. However I do not know of a pond with this combination as a firm reference or basis for my conclusions.

You are correct, you do not want to let your 15 ac pond become a haven for stunted or even slow growing bgill esp since you are on a limited budget.

If slow growing or stunted bgill are an issue with you and your pond is still under construction do your, very, very best to minimize the extent of shallow water (that less than 6 ft deep). Even if it means making the pond smaller to get a greater depth in the shallow areas. I can't stress this enough in your case. Shallow water weeds will protect lots of small bgill until they get big enough to avoid heavy predation pressure. Thus amount or extent of weed coverage and predation pressure will then have a big impact on how abundant the bgill become. Bass can't find a lot of the bgill if they remain deep in the weeds. As larger individials and saftey is less of a concern, bgill spend more time in somewhat open water and less in deep weedy protected areas. Your budget will not allow for chemcial weed control so you will have to rely on deep water to minimize weed growth and bgill recruitment. With high water visibilities which are very likely in you region weeds can grow well in depths to 7 or 8 ft. Eurasian milfoil is notorious for this. Your budget is not adequate to fight Eurasian milfoil and some of the other deeper growing aquatic macrophytes. Pray it does not get seeded into your water. Once the aquatic macrophytes get established in your pond you will appreciate and realize the wisdom of this minimizing the amount of shallow water advice. But then it is too late.

If you want to grow big bgill then you do not want the system to recruit scads of YOY bgill each year. The fewer the bgill you have the larger the average size will be. You will also likely have clear water so production per acre will be on the low side. Realize it and manage with that in mind. 15 ac even with low productivity can producre lots of large cleanable bgill.

If you want to produce larger bass then you have a conflict because producing lots of large bass usually requires abundances of 3"-5" bgill. High numbers of this size gill limits the food availability for the larger bgill. I think you have to set a priority of which is more important larger bgill or larger bass. Once you decide then manage toward that goal. Having it both ways will be a conflict and mgmt will become more difficult and require more effort.

Resign yourself the walleye in a 15 acre sheltered pond will be a put and take fishery. If the pond is windswept and you can establish cobble sized rocks on the down wind side then a walleye spawn MIGHT occur every few years. Survival of hatchlings is real iffy and dependent on numerous things. I think you should be working and earning money by this time and just buy each yr or every other yr 20-30 10" walleye at around $2-$3 ea each, if you are truly mindset for this walleye thing and want several continuing year classes of walleye. Note that large walleye readily eat smaller walleye. Stocking 6" walleye in your pond situation is a waste of money for what will eventually be harvested.

I will post more later on this topic after I reflect on it more.