Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Pond Stocking???

I'll have to catch another one to ID them.

Here is a couple pics of the catfish, so what type of catfish is it?

Looks like a very fat channel cat to me.

That is the fattest channel cat I've ever seen. What are they eating?

My guess is that it's a gravid female CC. Females retain the brown color while males can turn into a light or dark blue/grey. What a nice fish - thanks for sharing!

Definitely a channel cat. At that size, it is eating whatever is unfortunate enough too get in front of it and fit in its mouth. Bluegill and frogs are probably pretty high on its menu.

My strong guess as well... Perhaps with a bunch of pellets too.

So in a one acre pond so I get rid of it?

I fish for quite a while and only caught the one.

All depends on your goals, I generally don't advise C&R with CC as they get real hard to catch again...

Our goals are LMB and BG.

The Catfish was not planned or bought on purpose.

I'd remove them then.

We caught 4 samll 4-5 inch CC last weekend when BG fishing. I didn't think the CC would repoduce in a 1 1/2 acre pond. We also take out eveyone caught but with me, it's to keep them from digging up the bottom.

If there are hollows available, CC will reproduce in very small ponds. Their young just don't survive the heavy predation by bass and others.

thanks for the info CJ. I didn't know that.

When we put my Dad's pond in, in western Ohio, we stocked FHM and GS in it prior to putting LMBs in. The minnows and shiners spawned and the banks were full of clouds of tiny minnow fry. A few months later we stocked 100 LMB's in the 5-7" range and in about a month or so could find now minnow fry. The adult GS's were confined to the shallow beach area of the pond and were under constant observation by 12 -15 LMB's.

After observing this, I don't think that GS's could take over a pond with a healthy LMB population, but that's just my two cents worth.
Good luck and good fishing,
Dan

Sleepy:
GS = Gizzard Shad
GSH = Golden Shiners

You might want to go back and edit your post if you meant Golden Shiners.