Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Brand New Pond - What Should I Do?

Hi GregWV - welcome to the forum.
Ewest is on the right track for advice so far for your ponds. It will be difficult to maintain a natural balance of LM bass and bgill in a pond this small. I would try and stock JUST male OR just female bass. This will reduce the problems of trying to maintain a balance of bass in the pond based on the amount of forage fish present. A few bass in a pond this small pond will soon become hook smart and after numerous catching & release fishing sessions, they will be very difficult to catch. There has been several discussions here about this problem with bass in small ponds. I have experienced if several times first hand. You will learn too from experience. The smaller the pond the worse the problem becomes. I highly recommend that you read the March-April 2006 issue of POND BOSS MAGAZINE where this topic is discussed by Dr. Dave Willis and myself.

Take Ewest�s advice to heart. Don�t expect to grow a lot of big fish in your small 0.1 acre ponds. You can add numerous big fish to the pond but unless there is ample food don't expect very many of them to be there when the pond is drained. See Deb's example of a 15 yr old LMbass pond below. Again, you will learn by experience.

Think about this. If you put one 12� bass in your pond and if plump, it will weigh about a pound, otherwise a 13�er weighs a pound. A normal bass on average eats about 3% of its body weight per day in food which for your 1 pound bass is almost � ounce (0.48oz.). I figure it will feed about 300 days per year in WV climate. So 300 x 0.48 oz equals 144 oz or about 9 pounds of fish per year. The bass may not feed every day but when it feeds, it will often binge feed and then rest a day or two depending. But regardless, plan on 9 pounds of fish to feed your one bass IF you want it to have normal weight and gain weight. A 3� bluegill weighs about 0.32 oz. Thus 144oz / 0.32oz equals 450, 3� bluegills to feed your one pound bass for one year. Multiply this times the number of bass and remember to increase the size of bluegills as the bass size increases.

Stocking adult bass requires the presence of lots of forage fish for them to remain healthy and keep from losing weight.

If it were my pond I would buy bass (predators) that were pre-trained to eat fish pellets and this way you can grow more bass per pond than dictated the natural way by Mother Nature and mentioned by Ewest above. If your son is typical, he will enjoy talking about and feeding the fish as much or more than catching them. There has been previous detailed discussion on this fish feeding topic also (LMbass included).

To make your 0.10 acre pond very productive you almost have to go to an aquaculture � fish feeding method. Your main problem will be in the fish becoming accustomed (conditioned) to avoiding hooks and fishermen. For it to be assuccessful as you hope, you will in your small pond probably have to periodically replace the smart previously caught fish with dumber fish.

If good angling for your son is priority, you should seriously consider stocking hybrid bluegills. They grow fast, bite often and consistently and are well suited for small ponds. Your son will really enjoy catching big hybrid bluegills. Research the topic of hybrid bluegills on this forum. Georgia giant hybrid bluegills, that are a special type of hybrid of bgill, may be another good choice (see Debra King's post below).

Stocking minnows from the ditch or creek is a viable option but after doing this for many years, I highly recommend that you know all the species of fish in the ditch and be able to READILY recognize them well as they are flopping around in a net or your hand. It is much more to it than minnows, shiners, bullheads and sunfish. You can easily introduce unwanted and problematic fish species into your pond which can complicate management. Also wild fish also can introduce external and internal parasites and diseases into your pond. A healthy looking, tolerant fish from the wild is almost always harboring some unseen organism, bacterium and or virus; internally and or externally. When these organisms are released into a confined pond and when stressed fish conditions develop from lack of food or crowding or some other environmental stressor TROUBLE will eventually result. Vulnerable fish get sick first.


Some will recommend that you stock only catfish in a small pond your size. Think about that and research that option. You should also seriously think about and research the previous forum discussions of stocking hybrid striped bass. They can work well in a small pond

Algae and weeds will also be troublesome in a 0.1 acre pond. Be prepared to deal with this problem, especially if you have clear water as you are hoping for.


No easy answers for your small ponds. Your desire for larger sizes of LMbass in these small ponds makes for a difficult management situation if you expect viable, healthy fish populations Everyone will have a different opinion. Do a little more research and stock as you desire. Your ponds are small which can be a positive. You can fairly easily start over when things are not up to your expectations.