Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Stocking Small LMB

Greetings from Kentucky,

Last spring I stocked 150 1" LMB. I fear they became the Blue Plate Special for my GSF. I have not seen, or trapped, or caught, any of them during the past 12 months.

Same deal with 50 2" CC stocked 18 months ago.

The pond is loaded with BG up to 7"long, GSF up to 8" and FHM.

In your openion what is the mimimun size LMB that would have a chance of surviving the GSF?

On another note has anyone attempted to raise leaches as a natural fish food, what are the methods, pros and cons?

Thanks in advance for your time and assistance.

3"-4" LMB might be safe, but I would be tempted to go to 6" or so.

Before you re-stock LMB you must be sure of the situation. I would bet that some of the LMB survived. It will not take many to populate your pond. LMB do not usually trap well and catching them by hook and line at 10 mths is not always easy.

As a general guideline when stocking LMB at 2 inches into a pond with established fish population ( LMB BG RES FH etc) is that between 2 and 5 % survival would be expected. In your case without LMB but with GSF I would expect the % rate to be higher except that you stocked at 1 inch.

If you are sure that less than 10 LMB survived the I would stock no more than 20 4-6 inch LMB.