Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Do I HAVE to feed my fish??

What a great thread. You answered lots of the questions I didn't know I had. I am launching my pond this spring as well in SE Michigan (Dexter) and have found many of the same responses from hatcheries.

A question on GSH. It seems that their size gets Much bigger than FHM. Does this cause a problem in small pond? Also the numbers you talked about stocking (2000 FHM to 250,000 GSH) seem way unbalanced. What is the reason for this if GSH are better at surviving?

Yes, GSH get much larger... 3" for FHM as compared to GSH which can reach 12".

An over abundance of overly large GSH can cause problems in a small pond. GSH will compete for zooplankton food sources with BG and small bass. This can cause a decrease in growth rates for preferred game fish such as the BG and LMB. In my experience, a pond with a healthy LMB population will rarely allow large numbers of GSH to reach adulthood, particularly in a small pond.

The huge number disparity is due to size differences. 2000 FHM are adult fish, 1"-3" in size... The 250,000 GSH are fry, less than a half inch in size. The fry will be heavily preyed upon, therefore you need a much larger number to ensure some survive to reproduce.

Anymore questions, feel free to ask...

Thanks CHBS2003,
You have advised me to hold off on LMB until 2010 in my .5 acre pond. How would that affect the number of GSH? I would have BG. I originally was not planning on stocking any GSH, but this thread and others is making me reconsider.

I might be missing something. I can't find the post where I recommended you hold off on LMB until 2010.

If you don't have LMB stocked this year and you stocked the fry this year, your GSH would be about 3" next year. Just large enough to avoid being eaten by your freshly stocked LMB. Those 3" GSH would then spawn and their fry would be eaten by the newly stocked LMB.

Be careful though and take Bill Cody's advise, make sure your sunfish do not get ahead of the LMB. Stocking rates and timings for sunfish and LMB are very different for northern states as opposed to southern states.

If I understand what you are looking for(a fun place to catch some fish with the kids) then this is the stocking recomendation I would give you for a 0.5 acre pond that is reasonably easy to manage...

Skip the GSH, they just are not needed for what you are trying to accomplish. This spring stock FHM(5 lbs/2000 fish should be more than enough) and allow them to spawn all summer. This early fall, stock 150 2"-3" BG and 75 2"-3" PSS. The following late spring stock 25 2"-3" LMB. Then the following spring after that stocking another 25 2"-3" LMB.

That stocking plan will give you a very basic and manageable northern fishery. Once you have reached the point that you have stocked the second batch of LMB, you can then consider adding to the mix.

You can add CC at any rate you wish, they will not in all likelihood reproduce, so you can manage their numbers as simple put and take. You can also consider adding a small number of HSB, say 10-15 fish per year and they also can be considered a put and take fish.

YP can also be considered if you are looking to add a different fish to catch, but I would wait until the bass/sunfish population is well established and you are consistently producing healthy sized sunfish before you consider introducing YP to the pond and only then in small numbers, say 25 or so fish in the 6"-8" range. This wait is to ensure that there is adequate LMB predation to prevent stunting.

I hope this helps you out...