Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose new 2ac.+ pond

Howdy, BR. It's always good to hear from Cambridge, "The Gateway to Byesville!"

As DD mentioned, the forage base is the foundation for all your predator fish dreams. HBG would make a very poor foundation due to their low reproduction rate. Depending on what exact species of predators you finalize your plans on, you will want to use regular BG or perhaps (if you choose to go with SMB only, for example) YP. Plus those fabulous RES either way, IMHO.

Initial stocking with FHM, GSH (for a predator emphasis pond), and perhaps Gambusia will jump start your forage base and provide initial table fare for predator fish for 1 (FHM) to perhaps 3-4 (GSH) years.

Here is one of the best threads on SMB in ponds, SMB in Farm Pond , with info from the likes of Dr. Dave Willis and Bill Cody (the Dean of Ohio Pondmeisters). I have permanently stored the contents of this post for future SMB pond reference. My take on it is that it's probably worth a few tons of suitably sized aggregate placed at the correct depth range as SMB spawning insurance, but it may not be necessary.

There are a large number of posts arguing the pros and cons of Crappie in small ponds. Read as many of these as you can (learning to use the search function, if you haven't already, will help you find them). IIRC the best BCP ponds utilize overcrowded LMB as a predator, but I haven't read through the Crappie posts for a while. See for yourself what the collective Crappie experience and philosophy is, and join the arguments.