You guys (implying gals too) are great with making me think about things that I did not think about.
If I wanted one pond that I would feed, could I just place Koi in the pond? Would I also want BG or FH's to be the bream? I would like one of the two ponds for fishing but I do not need to have both of them for fishing...
As noted above, this seems like a good plan that may be easy for me to follow:
Plan #1:
1. 100 hybrid bream 1-2" (bluegills)
2. 25 hybrid stripes 3-5" (bass)
3. 1000 Gambusia (I am unsure if I can use these in WV because they are in the Guppy family and may pose a threat to being released into the creek, which the pond drains into... what do you all think, any chance of harming native creek fish?)
4. 75 CC 4-6"
5. 1 lb fatheads
Here are the goals we have for the ponds. We want them for many non fish reasons such as drawing in wildlife and I may get a pair of Pekin ducks for looks. Next, the goal is a place for the family to spend time at with our English Springers and they love to swim too. Next, I would like to be able to catch fish with a bobber such as BG or other easy to catch fish for my son and visiting nephews. Next, I would like to be able to catch larger fish with a lure so I can go out and cast catching a fish every so often (maybe 10-20 times a year I would fish for larger fish). I could see that it would be fun to catch large catfish too but I would probably only fish for catfish if I had some maybe 4-5 times a year. I fished last year at my uncles pond, which was maybe 50x150 or so in size and all his bass were about 12 inches or so and all of the bluegills we caught were about 6-8 inches or so. Something like this would be fine with me, I caught probably 20 bass in an hour or so.
If I could do one of the ponds for looks and just use Koi and maybe CC, that would be neat too and I could feed once per day usually. Some times, I would have to go several days without feeding since I would not be home but I could find a feeder for them too.
As far as start up cost for fish, I would like to stay under $500 or so. If I could stock and pull out tropical fish like discus and angels, I would but I have never seen them in ponds except in warm places like Florida.
