Hello, I am new to this forum and am looking for some input and advise. I live in southeast Iowa and had a new pond constructed on my property in the fall of 2010. The pond filled up the next spring and I have signed up for the Iowa DNR farm pond program. They provide fingerling bluegill, largemouth bass and channel catfish for almost no cost. The pond is about an acre and a half. It is about 15 feet at the deepest. In September of 2011 the DNR supplied me with 1,500 bluegill to stock in the pond. The fish were about half an inch to an inch long. This spring they will supply 105 largemouth bass about 1 inch long and 150 channel catfish about 2 inches long. I have the option of not stocking the CC. My question is should I stock the CC. I am looking for a balanced pond where I can take my kids fishing. It is also important to me to be able to catch a mess of fish to eat. I would like to be able to fish for black crappie but probably won't stock them because from what I have read they either don't do very well and you end up with very few but large crappie or they overpopulate and become stunted. What happens most of the time is they overpopulate and become stunted. Does anyone have an idea how many crappie you would have to remove each year to keep them from becoming stunted? Attached is an aerial photo of the pond.
