Welcome to the forum! Will you be feeding the fish? That's one way to really get them larger than typical pond fish, quicker. Going with your goal of a panfishers dream with the chance of hooking a big 'un, at first thought I'd go with HSB/YP/WE/RES/FHM/GSH and a few Tiger Muskie. I'd definately make sure my forage fish population was established before stocking, and I'd also make plans for cover that was specifically in place for the forage fish hiding and spawning.

I wouldn't go with crappie, although I if I really, really wanted to put crappie in there, I'd take a long hard look at Magnolia Crappie. There's been too many examples of Crappie overpopulating in smaller ponds. I think of Crappie as more of a predator fish than prey because of their early spawning habits and predominately fish diet. I don't think the predators would target crappie because of their shape and spines. They'd key in on the more fusiform shaped fish, YP/WE/HSB (if smaller). That't the problem with the predators, you can't tell them "just eat the Crappie and leave the others alone".

I'd do some research (like asking here) as to the the pro's and cons of stocking HBG vs. good genetic BG. I don't know if the temps are warm enough for you to stock CNBG.

I don't know if the predators in the pond would be able to control BG/CNBG, or if adding SMB to the predator base would be enough. Typically a large panfish pond will have a large number of predators (i.e. LMB) to keep the panfish population down.

HSB, WE, TM, HBG wouldn't reproduce enough to keep a viable population, so you'd be restocking. I'd start and keep a detailed log book with fish removed to keep tabs on population numbers of the hybrids.

With the new pond, I'd call Andersons and look into the 250,000 GSH fry. I believe if you have a new pond with few predators, and a good bloom going, they would do well.


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3/4 to 1 1/4 ac pond LMB, SMB, PS, BG, RES, CC, YP, Bardello BG, (RBT & Blue Tilapia - seasonal).