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

My parents are going to stock a newly dug pond on tuesday. The people we are buying the fish from said we should only put in catfish and bluegill. The pond is 1/4 acre and is about 8 foot deep in the middle. I would like to put some bass in there but dont want to do it if its going to kill them. Can someone recommend me a level of each to safely have catfish, bluegill and bass? We will be buying a feeder to feed them but i dont think my parents will want to do an aerator. We are in southeast texas around halletsville. They are ready to stock it and i just dont have the time to fully research the best way to do this by tuesday and i would really like to have some large mouth bass.

You'll need LMB (largemouth bass) to control your BG (bluegill). Have you talked to the hatchery about their plans for this pond? I can't imagine they'd suggest only CC and BG.

Yes we talked to them. They wanted to put in minnows, cc, and bg. They said the pond was to small for bass. What do you think we could put in there? My parents want to get some fish in there by tuesday. Any idea on the numbers of each fish to put in there or the order to put them in?

My mother talked to two companies here in texas about the fish and she said each one said that bass were not a good idea. One was in rock island and one was in halletsville.

BG without LMB is a bad idea. You'll end up with way too many BG without the predator created to control them. This initial plan is fine, but look at adding LMB in the near future. I'll let others weigh in on numbers.

What about same sex LMB? Then, they would not need to worry about the LMB over-populating..

I dont know. I am new to this and i think i would like to have the LMB be able to repopulate. Can anyone give me some advice on what kind of numbers of each to put in or what order if i need to put a certain fish in before another type. I am going to talk to the hatchery on monday and see what they think about bass. My parents do not know much about fish and didnt know what to tell them. They are just going with what they recommended. I will probably talk to them and tell them what we want. Any more advice would be appreciated.

I believe if you have both male and female LMB in 1/4 acre pond, the LMB are going to overpopulate and stunt in fairly short order. You may want to read up on stunted LMB on this site as it seems to be a fairly common issue.

How many BG are they throwing in? Typically you're looking at 100 LMB/acre for a standard, i.e. balanced, pond. So, right now I'd throw you the number 25, but management of this pond will be an integral part of making this pond what you want it to be. Selective harvest. LMB are necessary. Just keep them under control.

Well i am thinking of putting in around 100 catfish and 100 bluegill and then maybe 25 bass and then put in like 500 minnows.

My family has had several small (1/3 to 2/3 acre) ponds in central Texas. It's possible to do a bluegill/largemouth bass/channel catfish pond, but let me stress a few things:

-LMB and BG. Either stock both, or don't stock either.

-You can have a channel catfish only pond, that's actually pretty common. If you want, you and your family can start by only stocking fathead minnows and channel cats. If you decide to down the line, you can add bass and bluegill.

-Consider aeration. Given how small this pond is going to be, an aerator will really help prevent oxygen depletion fish kills and will effectively make your pond larger. Small ponds in TX usually stratify, with much of the water deeper than 5 feet or so being oxygen depleted so that fish can't live in it. If you aerate, that deeper water will be usable for the fish, effectively increasing the pond's volume without requiring any more earthwork.

Agree about aeration but disagree about bluegill. Also disagree about ever stocking bass in a 1/4 acre pond.

CC can't control BG numbers. Only bass can do that. However bass can/will overpopulate a 1/4 pond. Bottom line is that both bluegill and bass in a small pond will turn into a maintenance nightmare.

If it were me I would stock about 50 cc and 200 hybrid bluegill. The hybrids will spawn a little bit but not over run the pond. Also stock about 2 pounds of fathead minnows and 50 redear sunfish. Catch and eat the CC when they get to about 2 pounds. Restock with 6 to 8 inch CC. The hybrid bluegills will grow quickly but not reach the top size of a regular bluegill. However that doesn't say that they will be runts. They should hit about 8 to 9 inches with feeding. I sometimes add about a pound of fatheads yearly or maybe twice a year.

I've done this on several smaller Texas ponds and the owners have been happy with the results. This is low maintenance and low cost.

You want to stock 1 LMB for every 10 to 20 BG that you stock. If you put too many LMB in the pond you will be well on your way down the LMB overcrowded pond path.

For regular BG (not hybrid) the usual numbers tossed around is 1,000 BG and 100 LMB per acre.

When you are stocking catfish remember you are going to have to remove them and assuming eating them. Do you know how to clean them? Many don't like that task. If you're not eating them consider not stocking them. If planning on eating them, then follow DaveD1's advice, it works in your area.

There are several combinations of fish that you could use in this pond. Consider just putting in just minnows now and let them spawn this summer without any predators present to produce many thousands of new small minnows as fish food. Then after you do a little more homework about what fish to use, put the other fish in this fall. Those fall stocked fish will grow fast adn almost twice as fast on all the minnows that have reproduced this summer. This is a good way to grow some nice bass pertty quickly. If you stock BG plan to still add some redeas sunfish as Dave1 suggests. They help reduce snails and fish parasites in the fish you will be cleaning and eating.

Bass & BG can work in a small pond but as DD1 says, it is more maintenance of fishing out excess BG and bass. Hybrid bluegill require some periodic restocking as you remove the larger adults. Other optional fish to stock are hybrid striped bass(HSB) with hybrid BG, largemouth & BG with several HSB and a few catfish. Research the possibilities before the pulling the trigger on stocking that 1/4 ac pond.

Without aeration, with feeding and drought, expect pond problems later when water level gets low and pond ages - many fish could die. Plan for it not to minimize future problems. Aeration for a 1/4 ac pond does not have to be expensive. A small 1/4 pond even in TX would not have to be aerated 24/7 to result in 1-2 turnovers per day.

I am betting they are referring to HBG and not BG.

My theory is more of a no spawn, put and take, and restock.

that small of a lake, could you siene it to take out the over and excess?. You could even check into some of the tagging resources to help numberthe bass you keep in your pond.
Stocking all same sex would work too.

feeding and aireating in your pond are a good choice.!