Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain intiial stocking....finally

Finally limed "the hole in the ground". Quick reminder 3.5 ac renovated pond NE Texas. Looking at adjusting stocking to 100CC, 2400BG, 600RE and 18 lbs of FH. Looking for a good fishing pond not trophy bass. How does this sound or would you up the FH and lower the BG? LMB will be added early fall or next spring.

What is the stocking rate of the LMB?

I think you could cut back on some of the fatheads. In 6 to 12 months you will be loaded with them. If you want fishing, you could add more CC. They're a fun fish.

How about one big blue cat to play the role of "troll" under the bridge? If you have a feed trained fish, it probably won't have an enormous impact on your fishery in a pond your size.....

heybud-stocking rate for LMB will be 100/ac to hopefully go in early fall.
DD-since CC put and take, will add more as we remove some. 2lbs and they are out of there sound like the best plan.
yolk-fish will not be feed trained. Would love to have a troll but the thought of a monster sucking down large bass makes me think different.

Here's a question: do blues grow faster than CC? Or any benefits to stocking blues over CC? besides if you miss(unable to catch before get too large)having a giant sump pump in the bottom. Yet I imaging growth rate the same.

I'm not sure blues will grow faster at least initially; I'll bet Todd Overton can answer this down to the centimeter, and if he doesn't chime in here because he's too busy delivering fish, you might PM him.

Main advantage to blues IMHO is also the main detriment, depending on your point of view-ultimate size and predatory capacity/inclination. Other advantage is the opportunity to catch a really big fish.

I have several >20lbs in my ~21/2 acres. With a lot of forage available, they've been fairly good citizens. I have started feeding this year, and the blues eat well, which will hopefully reduce their predation somewhat. I've also stocked tilapia and am transfering a bunch of big BG in hopes of boost forage even more.

Hope this helps, maybe some of the real experts will enlighten us further.

Per Lusk, Channels grow
Faster for the first 2 years,
Then the Blues pass them.

In my innocent prePond Boss days, I added a bunch of 6-8" channels to my pond.

The Blues passed them immediately.

Theo and Yolk- thanks for the info. I think I'll stick with the CC. I know Todd is busy but he has been kind enough to answer questions I have had inspite of his schedule. This is why I am going to pick up the order, plus I can see his place and how its all done. Hopefully in the next couple of weekends. Need to get fish in the hole. Looking at the pond now is like drinking non-alcoholic beer--somethings missing.

Well it looks like next weekend I have a date with a couple thousand fish. Pick up, transport and stock the hole. Will take pics and report back. Anything in particular for ensuring a good trip and acclimation to the pond? I am sure Todd will fill me in but any info would be greatly appreciated.

Just do whatever Todd tells you to do!

Are you going to be feeding?

no feeding at this time. trying to keep as low maint. as possible.

Did anyone else notice Theo's reply is in the form of a Haiku?

Quigibo: I remember a pic of your bridge under water. Was that just during a overflow event? Is it dry now? I thought it was very cool.

DJT- The bridge is out of the water, for now. If you go back to "Another hole in the ground" you can see pics of it almost dry. http://www.pondboss.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=003539;p=3. It should end up high and dry most of the year, just above full pool and only be under in the rainy season(if you can say Texas has a rainy season).

3100 + and the cycle begins. Stocked last weekend. Met Todd and his crew at Ovetons, great people. Unfortunately I was running late and so did not get a chance to look around. Loaded up 8 boxes of fish(2400 coppernose BG, 600 RE, 100CC and 18 lbs FH) and headed to the hole. 3 hours later and time to set them free in their new home. It was late so was unable to take many pics and most did not turn out great. But here is what I got:

Trailer with fish:

Bag of BG or RE:
Bag of FH:

Bad photo but shows size of CC


Almost all swam away happy and safe for now. Only lost one CC and a few FH on the trip. No floaters or sign of lost fish for the next 2 days. Its nice to see activity in the pond and know its fish.