Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Adding forage fish while pond is still filling.

JKB...are you being mean spirited? Tsk tsk - I personally love the school bus idea - in fact, I'd like to be the one at the helm for it's one last crazy ride!

At any rate - welcome aboard Art - we've been waitin' for ya!

Establishing forage now puts you light years ahead on your pond management strategy and attaining your goals, so you are on the right track. The goals for your fishery might make a difference in the type of forage you stock, but you can safely stock FHM and GSH at this point with no worries IMO.

Remember FHM like to spawn beneath things - rocks and timber if they can find them, otherwise spawning shingles, tires, or pallets will suffice. Considering the fact your water level is rising, I'd opt for pallets tied to the shoreline. As your water level fluctuates, so will your pallets. They will become waterlogged after some time and you need to pull them out to dry for a few days, but then they're ready again for duty. I imagine one could fashion some floatation device to keep them from sinking - Esshup mentioned that tying off detergent bottle on the corners might work well. I think I'm going to try that method myself.

GSH require submerged vegetation as spawning habitat. If you have some areas of vegetation, you may pull off a spawn - it's certainly worth stocking them at any rate so when the habitat is present they'll be ready to do their thing.

What are your fishery goals? Depending on the species, it might make sense to consider stocking some fingerlings now along with your forage to get them established and a suitable size so they aren't hammered too hard when you stock your predator fish later on. Different schools of thought on whether to stock BG before or at the same time as your predators in Northern BOWS - it all depends on the goals you set for your fishery.

Hope this helps - tons of great guys here with decades worth of experience - and one of them even has a bus to donate as structure. Can't beat it - welcome again!