Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Starting up a new pond

Hello there all! Thanks in advance for any help in getting my friends pond going. He is my good friend and business partner, and the newly constructed pond sits right outside our shop. It was just finished up about 2 weeks ago, and only had one rain, and it wasn't much, but it did fill up a deep hole of about 10 feet deep.

We just subscribed to PB Magazine!
What are the first steps of adding fish? We plan on adding them in the spring, but what do you recommend first, such as baitfish? The pond has a constant running water source and should be about 20 feet deep in the deepest hole. The pond is about 5 acres long, and about 1 acre wide in the wider spots. He would like bluegill, crappie, walleye, channel catfish, and bass...I think he also mentioned he wanted perch.

Thank you for the insight!

If it were me I would 1st stock (my head) with all the info I could read on pond boss fourm then with Bob's books & ect. before the 1st fish hit the water.

Will pretty well nailed it. Read a bunch of this stuff. Some of us have been doing this for quite awhile and we don't agree.

We could answer the question with about 4 sentences. However, by the time we put in all of the exceptions, it would go 4 pages. Some concepts are general and others are geographic. Read and study, then ask again. It won't take long to start coming up with some real specific questions.

Buy "Raising Trophy Bass" from the PB folks and think long and hard about crappie.

Thanks for the reply guys! I will surely look this over. I have about 4 months before any fish will get in there.

Got a lot to read.

Jimmy

From your perspective, what are the good combinations of fish to start out with? What is good with what, and what works best? What type of forage should I start out with for them. Help is greatly appreciated. We're not picky with what we put in, just as long as it has good fishing, with some good table fair!

The safe, traditional way: Fatheads at 5 lbs. per acre and bluegill or coppernose bluegill at 1,000 per acre. Vary the bluegill recipe by making an 80/20 mix with redear sunfish. LMB are almost a sure thing requirement to control the blue gill and the BG are the only species that are year round baby factories. They will be your forage base. Channel cats are a put and take fish and can be added when you stock the forage. Stock the other predators like bass after 3 decent BG spawns.

Others will maybe chime in on walleye and perch combinations.

Dave,


thank you very much for the help!

What would be another good fish to add to this pond other than CC? Why don't CC reproduce?

We will probably do away with the walleye, as I heard some bad stories about them. We would possibly still like to put in perch. Will need to do some reading up on that one.

Thanks again

Jimmy

Jimmy, the cats reproduce but the fry are slow and vulnerable. You seldom get any replacement fish. But that's OK, if you catch and eat them at 1.5 to 2 pounds, they don't get the opportunity to become a top of the line predator. You can restock 8 to 10 inchers fairly inexpensively.

At the point of perch, I have to back off. I know nothing about them and how they would fit in with the other combinations. That's the whole thing. How do the different combinations balance, support and/or compliment each other? BTW, just because they start out balanced doesn't mean they stay that way. You need to be vigilant and there is a certain amount of work (labor of love) involved. But, it's not as tough as raising daughters.