Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose small pond just built

my dad and i just finished constructing a 1/10 acre pond. We used a backhoe to excavate out a good sized area surrounding our stream. Following that we built a 6 foot dam which will raise the water 5 feet resulting in our max depth being 10 feet. the pond follows our stream bed resuting in about 1/6 of the pond being 7 feet or greater and 1/2 being 5 feet or greater about 1/4 of the pond is a shallow fllod plane ranging from 1 to 4 feet with gravel and mud bottom. the stream is not seasonal resulting in year round water supply. the water in the stream maxes out around 70 degrees. The pond temperature maxed at 74 last summer after inital construstion and heavy rain. the pond will be filled as soon as ice out this spring (march 15) when we put the stand pipe up. I was planning on airating the pond and possiblly feeding. I was also planning on stocking 100 bluegill(3-5") 5lbs of fathead and 30 largemouth bass(6-10"). Is this about right? My dad stocked his pond as a kid in Conneticut and said bullhead never caused a problem. i dont really agree any other opinions. The pond already has a lot of frogs and native minnows.

bump

Does your Dad mean he didn't have any BH, or that he had BH and they weren't any problem? Neither is necessarily pertinent to your new pond in a different state.

Stocking number of LMB seems high for that size of fish (6" - 10"). I would want to wait until the BG had spawned and the FHM population had expanded before putting in that size LMB. Then I think I'd hold it to 20. (BG/FHM Spring 2007, LMB Fall 2007/Spring 2008).

If you haven't read about the limitations of LMB in a pond that small (you can't support many pounds of LMB in 1/10 acre - a couple of big bass might be the whole possible predator load), I suggest you do so.

he meant they had them in the pond and they caused no problem. i didnt know if the #'s were to high and the LMB thank you for the input. does airation and feeding increase the carrying capacity of the pond if so by how much?

Prior to stocking, I think I would identify the fish from the stream that you are damming. It would probably be tough to overload if you have a constant flow through. Also, what are the chances of your fish migrating upstream?

the fish in the stream are just common minnows the odds of the fish migrating upstream is minimal as the water is usually only 3 to 4 inches deep running rather quickly. i am sure that small fish(up to 4 inches) could migrate as i have seen larger minnows(2-3") swimming from pool to pool. The pools average 1-3 feet with one that i know of that is 10' by 10' and 4' deep. that pool is located very deep in the woods though and only harbors large minnows and a lot of frogs. the stream is spring and runoff fed so it does have a constant flow. I was thinking of building a small concreate dam to slow the water down as it approaches my pond for when it rains it can carry a lot of water which i am afraid may carry silt, although this stream is a rock/gravel bottom stream resembling a vermont brook trout stream. What are peoples opinions on the concreate dam idea?

Hey, Bureau Creek,
We spent alot of time searching the Princeton area for property about 4 years ago. I love it out there. We got pretty serious about one parcel near Depue with a magnificent view over the Illinois River and a couple others that were more "pond'able" in the Wyanet area. It is a beautiful area; I envy your ability to pull it off.
Did you research or anticipate any issues with blocking a non-seasonal stream? We had a few encounters with that situation in Illinois and it always wound up up being a government agency PIMA.

sounds like a beautiful place. the best way to slow down creek water (IMO) is to dig a sediment basin above yer pond (not to dam up the creek). give the water a place to slow down and drop its load before getting to yer pond.

could the "common minnows" be some kind of creek chub? if so, i wouldnt think they would cause any harm, and probably add some forage base.

aerating and feeding most definitely increases the carrying capacity, if managed well it would be many times that of an unmanaged pond.

i'll bump brettski's question....out here in CA its dam near impossible (ha) to change a creek if it hasnt been done already.

ya i did research on the daming and they said as long as the dam met certain criteria it was ok. Ya the land is nice i built a sedimentry basin is that all i need. minnows could be creek chub. they look like very small rainbow trout.

What dam Mr. agent man? What we have dare is concrete creek crossing.

"We just smiled and waved sitten there on that sack of seeds" Jim Staford

i'll get some pics up this weekend

my plans for my pond have been upgraded with a little more measuring my dad and i found out that the pond will be closer to 0.16 acres possiblly more. gotta get out this weekend and finish the measurements are first measurements were for only a four foot dam with the extra foot it adds a good amount of surface area that will exceede 3 feet. the measurements are hard to get down exactly as it is -5 degrees and about 5inches of snow with a -20 wind chill. So i hope it wont be too bad this weekend. We also discussed the possibility of raiseing the dam to a 6 foot height as we have around 6 feet of pipe for our stand pipe. the only problem would be that we would have to raise the dam another foot to achieve the one foot between our normal level and emergency spillway. Our emergency spillway is 4' wide by 1' deep is this lg enough? I have seen the stream before daming get to this size only twice once was after a week where we had about one to two inches a day and then a freak four inch thunderstorm (100 yr flood height on nearby creek). I plan on construting spawning beds over an area of my shallows(1-4ft) do you just dig a 2'X2' hole then fill with pea gravel? The only problem I see in my pond is that there really isnt a large area of 4-5ft depths the depths are about 1/4 8-11ft 1/4 6-8ft 1/4 2-3ft 1/8 1-2ft and 1/8 4-5 ft will that cause problems? I will aireate the pond so Dissolved Oxygen levels wont be a problem but will this affect fish if so what will the effects be? I am looking to stock my BG and minnows this spring (May 1st) and stock the 6-10" LMB this fall is that correct? I also plan on throwing in a few SMB for the heck of it i know its not the smartest thing but they are much better fighters then LMB and i pull 2 pounders out of the local creek on a regular basis. Will keep you posted gonna try to upload some pictures Saturday with my new measurements. Sorry the post is so long but what can i say after studying spainish for two hours i had to do something to get out of my head.

Just a note for the stocking. I would not be so rushed to stock the LMB or even the SMB the same year. I personally would give the forage fish time to establish. If you put the bass in right away and if they have any size to them at all you will soon find you can't keep up on the forage fish. I would give at least a season in between to let the eco system find its own natural way.

thank you for your input eric. i just finished clearing some more land that will be part of the pond. i was gonna take pics but my battery on the digital camera was dead. my new measurements took about 2 hours to complete but the pond should be about 1/4 8-10+ feet, 1/4 6-8 feet. very little 5-6 feet, 1/2 1-4 feet. the total size should be main pond 150X40= 0.14 acres with an additional amount of around 500feet along the stream that is damed up this would range from 1-3 feet deep. this extra amount would be about 0.06 acres making the total amount just under 1/4 of an acre. the reason for the massive area 1-4 feet is due to the upstream area. hopefully the 1-4 feet will not freeze thru. there is about 5 inches of ice on the excavated part of my pond.