My purpose for stocking the pond is just for the "life cycle" purpose or whatever you would call it. Control insects, especially mosquitos. I might be selling my place and having property close to the city that can be hunted and fished should add value.

For myself I want what has the greatest chance of surviving excluding junk fish like carp and bullheads. To saleability I would like there to be some gamefish and I have read here to avoid crappies, my father's favorite. Both the DNR and the fisherman suggest LMB and BG and I saw on here that Channel Cats are also a favorite and they are native to this climate, although the records cats were caught in the nearby rivers.

Since there are "bugs" in the pond I thought the fatheads could eat them. I didn't know I had to have algae for them to eat? It looks like I am beginning to get some algae in the shallow water. It has been really cold here..just the other day we had snow and sleet but warmer days have arrived and it should continue to be warm.

Thanks for the info on the Sunfish. I heard of Pumpkinseed when checking the DNR site for native species...this is what they said:

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STATE RECORDS
Bluegill: 2 pounds, 13 ounces, length not available, Alice Lake (Hubbard County), 01/09/1984.

Green: 1 pound, 2.7 ounces, 11.4 inches, Scheuble Lake (Carver County), 1948.

Pumpkinseed: 1 pound, 6 ounces, 10.1 inches, Leech Lake (Cass County), 06/06/1999.

Hybrid: 1 pound, 12 ounces, 11.5 inches, Zumbro River (Olmsted County), 07/09/1994.


Minnesota has several sunfish species, but the most popular with anglers are the bluegill and the pumpkinseed. Both are found in most of the state's lakes and streams. Both spawn from late May well into the summer. The bluegill tends to grow larger than the pumpkinseed. Though both have a blue spot on the ear flap, the pumpkinseed also has some bright orange at the very edge of the flap. Also, bluegills tend to be mostly olive colored while pumkinseeds are more orange colored.

Sunfish are particularly prone to "stunting." Lakes that have good spawning habitat but not much food can produce swarms of small adult sunnies that never grow larger than four or five inches.
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Thanks!