Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Another Idea

Alright, so I've been reading like crazy the past couple of months here. It's all great stuff, and it seems a lot of people are straying from the standard LMG-BG combination. I was reading a long post about Brettski's SMB and I was thinking about another idea of a northern pond. Let's say it is 7-10 acres or so. It has a lot of added rock, gravel, and other added structure and is 25-30 feet in depth at most. I was thinking maybe of also focusing on SMB. It makes sense to me, it would be miles before I could find a quality SMB pond, although there is a few close SMB/LMB ponds nearby me. Which has since finding this site made me confused on how that combination works. Yet, at the same time I want to have a variety of fish. I was thinking of taking the YP/SMB idea, adding crayfish, golden shiners, fatheads and walleye for controlling the YP. Hopefully, the GSH and less likely the FHM will continue to reproduce without the presence of LMB. They might also feed upon YP and other eggs, as I hear they regularly eat them. Finally, although I hear very mixed reviews on BG, I was thinking pumpkinseeds, they don't reproduce as much, aren't as large and provide additional forage. So what do you guys think? I will probably have to stock supplemental Walleye eventually, as very little successful spawning will probably happen. Which is fine, any other imbalances I'll work out with a few fishing poles. Are there any other fish that might work well here? Perhaps a grow and take system with CC and trout. I personally love our native New England brook trout, they're beautiful.

Do you currently have a pond stocked with LMB? If LMB are present, they will out compete your SMB. The only way they work together, it's my understanding anyway, are in large reservoirs where the SMB can find habitat that is not preferred by the LMB, thus keeping the two separate.

Sorry, I should have better explained that this is just a dream, slowly coming into reality. So, no there are no fish present.

Keep dreaming, it's what keeps me going... It's good to have a dream, it's better when that dream comes to reality! I think your plan could work. I don't see anything that wouldn't work. Pumpkinseed could be a good option as RES would not survive in CT in all likelihood and if I recall correctly are illegal to stock anyways. You'd have to stock walleye regularly, as they are not going to reproduce in a pond unless a minor miracle were to happen.

Yeah, they're illegal. Although I think PK's are a much cooler fish. Do they eat snails too?

Yes!

Great! What I really want to know is what kind of problems do all of you think might happen later? What kind of structure besides the large/small rocks to add and finally I'm completely clueless on stocking rates. I hear people saying 1000 to 150 per acre for everything you can think of, does climate effect stocking rate? Also what can I get from feeding them. Should I, or is 7 acres a little too large? Anything else all of you pond masters can think of is helpful, and other posts you can point me too. I'm planning on subscribing quickly, thanks.

The bigger the better pond size.
I am a forage lover. In my eyes, you can never have too much forage. So what I would do is find long, narrow fish, like fatheads, to feed your SMALL mouth bass. Unlike Large Mouth Bass, smallies can't swallow anything that moves. Sou you have to find narrower fish to feed them. Fatheads, Craws, Threadfin Shad, Gambusia Minnows are all good sources of food for small mouth. Just do your homework and find several more species that can sustain themselves in a pond and are narrow. As for structure, I honestly don't know much about smallies. But I do know that they love craws, love rocks, love weeds, and love deep ponds. Oh and I watched Hook n' Look and the small mouth were chasing all these gobies around the grass beds in 15-20ft of water. That would be a fish to look into.

IMO, I wouldn't go introducing gobies anymore around North America than they already are. There are a number of native species well suited to forage than gobies which are native to Eurasia and a very invasive nasty little fish. Plus, it would be illegal to introduce them anywhere.

IMO/E suitable forage species for smallmouth bass in ponds would be golden shiners, spotfin shiners, satinfin shiners, spottail shiners, red shiners, bridle shiner, mimic shiner, bluntnose minnows, fathead minnows, brassy minnows, northern redbelly dace, brook silversides, tessellated darters, Johnny darters, swamp darters, banded killifish, blackstripe topminnow, eastern and central mudminnows, lake chubsucker, orangespotted sunfish, bluespotted sunfish, and in southern areas threadfin shad.(other species of fish can be used as forage, but would also considered gamefish in their own right such as yellow perch) Any of several native species of crayfish could be introduced as well, however, be careful of the species as some can be burrowers, aquatic vegetation eaters and/or highly invasive. Don't forget grass shrimp as well.

Not all these species are suitable for every pond type nor goal, but these species pretty much cover every suitable forage species for smallies.

Wow, thanks for all the informaton, CJ. I think GSH/FHM and crayfish will do well. Although I should look into the possibility of dace and lake chubsuckers.

Smallies can work in a pond with LMB but one has to periodically stock larger sized smallies (10"-12"; 8" SMB may work depending of size of LMB and amount of refuge area?) to keep their numbers high enough where you can periodically catch one. SMB in a smaller pond with LMB very, very rarely produce young SMB that grow to adulthood.

Thanks Bill for clearing that up. The lakes I'm talking about are probably upwards of 10 acres and pretty diverse with muddy areas and large areas of sand and rock. So that makes sense.

Now I'm pretty confident I can make this work but I'm unsure about how many/when to stock. Any ideas? Has anyone else in the north east or Canada used PK's instead of RES?

I'm trying to see what kind of permit I might need to trap crayfish. I know not to include "rustys" but I know of a few places that are loaded with some other species.