ML,
Your timing is perfect. Middle of the thread but the beginning of the project. Initially, I thought about stocking CC for two reasons; (1) I like catfish and (2) it would be an attempt (experiment) to find out whether or not CC would be an effective predator, keeping the BG in check. That thought process has changed. The biggest reason is turbidity, which Bill C mentioned early on. In the year since the pond was first excavated I've noticed that ANY movement/disturbance of the bottom results in a cloud of sediment. In addition to giving the neighborhood kids a fishing hole, I'd also like to provide them with a chance to observe the fish. If a frog kicks up a cloud of dust as it hauls the mail across the bottom of the pond, I can only imagine the outcome from a bunch of CC.
With my goal set on having a panfish pond, I'd like to have a range of fish sizes for the kids to enjoy. Knowing that BG will overpopulate and stunt quickly, I gave serious thought to Bill's recommendation of using only male BG. It would offer me better population control and I could stock different sizes. That was the plan but, as stated in my previous post, I never received the fish.
Now to present day. Along with observing the pond for a year, I've had the pleasure of reading all the great information here on PB related to panfish. More fuel for the fire. Most recently was a post by Cecil stating his experiment with male only BG has suffered a setback due to the presence of BG fry. Another post of interest is the one titled, "How did these fish arrive?". This pond is the result of excavating out an intermittent stream that runs through my property so I suspect I will end up with some surprises down the road. From all this information, I've come away with the following thoughts. I still want to try a male BG only pond but I suspect that a female or two is going to slip in due to my inexperience of sexing fish. If that occurs, Plan "B" would kick in where I add a predator, most likely LMB, and now with ML and Ewest's advice I could experiment with female only.
I'm excited about the project and if everything goes Murphy on me, its small enough to drain and start over. In the meantime I'm in a holding pattern, waiting for rain. I do appreciate any and all comments.
Russ
