First, I'd like to say that I appreciate the contributions you have all made to this forum. It truly is a cornucopia of farm pond wisdom.
My situation: Farm pond ~45 minutes east of San Antonio, Texas on a 30 acre place my dad owns. Averages .4 acre in size over a normal year. Maximum depth about 16 feet. Drainage area is all cattle pasture. This lake was stocked with native largemouth bass (LMB), native bluegill (BG), fathead minnows, and channel catfish (CC) soon after construction roughly 20 years ago, for purposes of basic sport fishing. It consistently produced LMB in the 12-17 inch range, and 6�-10� BG with zero stocking after the initial one. Channel cats got over 30�, but never successfully reproduced. At some point, redear sunfish (RES) showed up in small numbers, as did a few scattered bullhead (removed whenever caught) and some sunfish that looked a lot like pumpkinseed (I don�t know if they were or not, they might have been some kind of hybrid). Visibility was probably about 18�, and there was substantial filamentous algae.
The area of Texas this pond is in is suffering a terrible drought. The pond is extremely low, with probably less than 2 feet of water remaining. This indicates, to me, an almost complete fish kill. The weather in the immediate future isn�t looking good, so the pond might go completely dry.
I would like to re-stock this pond. My goal would be to develop a decent low maintenance LMB/BG pond for my family to enjoy fishing in and just being around. We probably wouldn�t be pulling many fish out to eat. Not looking for trophies either. I would also like to control that nasty filamentous algae. Not interested in putting CC back in, they just eat food without supplying much fun. Aeration and feeding are not going to happen, this property is not visited regularly enough for maintenance.
My re-stocking plan:
-Wait until the pond starts to fill back up when, [deity of your choice] willing, rain comes
-Add about 5 lb. of fatheads in October or November
-Add about 5 lb. of Golden Shiners (GSH) in December/January, along with about 75 1�-3� RES
-Add about 125 1�-3� native BG in February/March
-Add about 30 1�-3� native LMB later in the spring
-Wait 1 year
-When water starts to warm up in April or May, add 4 lb. of Mozambique Tilapia (Moz T)
-Continue adding Moz T every late spring annually, possibly adding small numbers of LMB at the same time if the population seems to be well-fed.
My questions:
-Do my numbers of fish/species/timing look good?
-Would supplemental stocking of GSH once there are bass in the pond help establish a reproducing population, or would it just be feeding the bass?
-There is no structure or cover in the pond now, beyond algae, a dock, and some weeds. Would sinking a Christmas tree be of much value?
-Should I siphon out the remaining pond water now to make sure there are no bullheads surviving?
-Is there any threat of Moz T surviving the winter and overpopulating?
-Should I stock snails or crayfish? It seems they'd be decent forage for RES and BG/LMB when they're first introduced.
Thanks to all of you who look at this, and I�m sure I�ll have more questions shortly.
Last edited by txelen; 07/12/09 09:44 PM.
