Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking sequence

I'm new to this part of the forum and fairly ignorant in these matters. I have a new pond that is about half full now and have some stocking questions. I've already stocked Fatheads which seem to be doing well, I'm hoping they will go forth and multiply over the summer. This fall I'm planning on putting in bluegill and redear, with largemouth at the same time or possibly next spring, whichever is best. If I have good minnow reproduction over the growing season would it be possible to go ahead and stock largemouth this fall when I put in the bluegill and redear? Also, I intend to stock channel cats at some point. My boys (me too)are anxious to get some fish in the pond so I was thinking about going ahead and putting in the cats now. How would this affect things later when I put in the bass, etc.? Would the cats grow enough over the summer to cause a problem by preying on the fingerlings I put in later? I want to be careful and not get things out of whack at the beginning.

A lot of this depends on (relative) sizes. I believe the bottom line to all stocking schemes & sequences is 1) you should have appropriately sized food available for the fish you add and 2) the fish you add must be big enough wrt existing predators in the pond so as not to end up as snacks.

For your scenario, if the FHM do well this Summer and multiply as they should, I think it would be fine to stock LMB this Fall in a size that will utilize FHM well. 3" - 4" bass fingerlings in reasonable numbers should do fine on the FHM. That's good. 6"-9" bass, OTOH, would want to eat nominally sized BG/RES stockers (2" - 3") instead. That's bad.

CC in the sizes normally stocked (say, anything up to 9") should not be a problem for the smaller sizes of BG/RES/LMB mentioned above when those go in this Fall, particularly if the cats are fed pelleted feed. Given that the pond is new, feeding the cats would give them much more to eat than the still developing invertebrate food chain as it currently exists. It may also help the FHM both directly (if the FHM eat some pellets) and indirectly (helping keep the CC off their backs).

P.S. This is where I make my usual "Go conservative on catfish numbers when stocking, to avoid getting way too many once they get to be big fish, and because CC are cheap to add later on as advanced size fingerlings" speech.

I would suggest if that is the general plan then I would add the small BG/RES soon (by early summer). It is ok for FH and small BG to go in together. Small fish (yoy) morts go up if you stock small yoy LMB (2in) in fall to close to cold weather. The bigger and better conditioned the yoy are before cold temps the better the survival. If you are going to use larger yoy LMB (4-6 in in fall) then I would add the BG/RES now and also add about 20-25 adult BG (male and female) per acre early this summer. That way you know you will have reproducing BG next spring. As Theo notes it is a big puzzle depending on what you want and what fish you can get.

I agree with above but have a question why are you waiting on bg/re sotcking? We routinely sotkc with the FH's. They will reproduce thsi summer meaning more food for the bass this fall. Also if you go with 6-8 inch CC at less than 50/acre I do not see any harm in stocking them when you put in BG/RE. As mentioend a few adult BG wil be a big benefit. We stocked new lakes last week with 3 inch bg/ 1-2 inch re/fh/6-8 inhc cc that we are stocking in JUne with bass and can promise the bass will have excellent growth. good luck

Thanks for the advice fellas. Looks like it's BG, RE and CC this spring in addition to the FH. I wasn't sure if the BG and FH might get ahead of the LMB by next spring if I put the BG in this spring. I've been feeding the FH's I have in the pond now, as far as I know they are doing ok, only seen a few floating thus far.