Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Central Iowa Pond

Personally, I would wait until Spring to put in the FH; They spawn at water temps at or above 60 deg F and your water would be considerably colder than that now.

For stocking for 3 acres, multiple the FH, BG/RES, and LMB numbers by 3, not 4.

3-4 catfish a week for eating - that strikes me as very do-able, at least with feeding.

Removing 5 lbs of bass a week sounds nigh well impossible - let's check some math: 5 lbs/week for 12 weeks (3 months) is 60 lbs of bass. Making a rough guess based on the excellent writings of Bob Lusk ("Buy the Books!"), that could easily be 1/3 of the total biomass of LMB in the pond; I don't think removing that % of bass each year is advisable or close to sustainable.

Growing a half-dozen 8 oz BG to remove each week is also a tall order (although closer to the realm of possible than with the LMB). I myself have a 1 acre pond in the 4th year of trying to grow big BG; while I have some pushing 1/2 pound, if I ate them at an equivalent rate of 2 per week I would easily run out of them over the course of a Summer. I LOVE to eat BG, but I'm pulling the smaller ones, usually between 6" and 7" (3-4 oz tops).

I believe your desired BG yield would be sustainable only if the biggest BG were larger than 8 oz (you can't take out the largest BG without adversely affecting the population). Bruce Condello is perhaps our most preeminent large BG grower. If you pick up the back issues of BG from the last year, you can read 4-5 articles on growing big BG that he (and Cecil Baird and Bill Cody) wrote and glean a lot of useful info from them.

Just how many pounds of BG one can remove from an acre while managing the fish well is an interesting question. I am working slowly up in quantity each year myself while keeping a strong hand and eye on improving the quality and size of my BG at the same time.