Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain brand new pond needs fish!

Howdy, Z, and welcome to the Forum!

If you stock FHM and GSH this Spring and wait for a year, you will have a ton of forage for your LMB when you stock them and the BG. I went this route on my first pond, and IMHO the only downside is the delay - if you don't mind that (or have the unavoidable delay to utilize) it will work fine.

Aquatic plants will volunteer their way in over time. The most important plant life - phytoplankton - will show up first. Larger plants will tend to take longer. As to whether you want to add any yourself, there are a couple of questions to answer that can help you decide.

How much plant coverage do you think is desirable? If the answer is "none", your plan may be to not put any in and load up on grass carp. If the answer is "a lot, of the right kinds", I suggest asking Bill Cody to E-Mail you the Power Point show for his excellent "If You're Going to Have Weeds, They Might as Well be Pretty" talk on hybrid water lilies from PBCon III (sadly, the PP slides don't include Bill's tapdance number, or the paperboy scene from Streetcar Named Desire which he reenacted with Bob Lusk).

Are there problem plants in nearby BOW, likely to show up on their own, that you want to preempt? Similarly, if your pond will be fished by boats frequenting waters with undesirable plants, preemption may be more advisable.

BG and LMB will spawn on virtually any substrate - clay, sand, gravel, etc. Adding gravel is not necessary, but won't hurt these two species either. Therefore, don't bust a budget or a gut to add it, but if you will enjoy doing it go right ahead. If you aim for 2 feet to 6 feet of depth, that will likely cover the ranges BG and LMB like to spawn at in most BOW (IIRC water clarity influences preferred depth somewhat, deeper in clearer water). Ice migration at thaw out varies a lot from pond to pond (and year to year, at least down South in Ohio), so I don't know what you can expect from aiming accuracy.