Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose New pond stocking

That one big fish. Do you have any idea how long he has been in your pond or how old he is?

I found out today that I won't be able to aerate due to the lack of electricity around the pond and the lack of money for a solar aerator. So I'm assuming HSB are now out of the question. So my question now is what species would work well in my 2 acre pond. I would really like to include blue catfish if I could.

How far is it from available electricity to the pond?

Roughly 350 yards

Put the compressor by the electric, bury 1" flex pipe to the pond (the black stuff like they use for drip irrigation but larger). Put the manifold cabinet by the pond and run self weighted line in the pond for the bottom diffusers.

I manage ponds on a property that has 900' of airline buried and it works fine.

The electricity source is also across the road so I don't think I would be able to do that. I could use a windmill aerator, but I don't think it would work very well because we tend to have fairly little wind in the summer months.

You could have HSB, but expect them to begin to have issues in unaerated ponds when they get over 6 pounds or so.

Would a windmill aerator help? And how long would it take for a HSB to reach 6 pounds?

Food source and its abundance and probably a few other things will determine how long it will take a HSB to get to 6 lbs. Without ample food it may never reach 6 lbs, but with lots of the right kinds of food they could reach 6 lbs in 4-5 yrs. HSB can live at least in northern ponds to be 20 yrs old.

Bill, do you think HSB would do well in an unaerated pond or a pond with a windmill aerator?

The 20 yr old HSB referenced above lived in an unaerated pond with blue pond dye until a summer algae bloom fish kill eliminated them. Remember this was in NW Ohio. A Missouri pond depending on its conditions and water quality could be different. They are not that expensive, try some 20-50 in 2 acres and see how they survive in your pond. Heavy algae blooms and cloudy water could cause stresses to the point of deaths in hot summers. Feeding them high protein pellets 3 to 6 times a week helps improve their growth rates. I don't suggest you use cheaper catfish food for the HSB since they grow best and stay healthiest on 40%+ protein pellets sush as Purina Aquamax carnivore size 600.

A windmill aerator is better than no aerator but don't expect it to mix a big portion of the pond - maybe only 0.5 - 1 ac depending of average windspeed.

Thanks Bill. How many do you suggest I stock? I woul also like to stock blue or channel catfish in addition to the HSB.

Blue cats are a maximum predator and can put the fishery out of balance by eliminating too many competiting important predators such as smaller LMB of 8"-14" depending on the size of the older blue cats. Some here have noted the bluecats eliminated too many good forage fish thus suppressing growth of other predators.

Number of HSB to stock depends on lots of things including if you feed pellets. IMO I would start with 10-20/ac and then restock some every 1-2 yrs based on how many you remove and how well they are surviving. HSB can be stocked up to 50-100 / ac depending on goals and management of the pond.

What else would you reccomend I stock? I was thinking a combination of CC, HSB, and HBG. With FHM and GSH for forage.

What part of Missouri are you in? I live north of the Missouri River, and I plan on trying SMB and HSB in a smaller pond.

I live in the ozarks.

IMO the CC would be better than the blue cats. FHM may not survive long term with your planned stocking. Hopefully others with FHM & CC-HSB will provide some insight how well FHM will thrive with CC-HSB.

Here is my plan for stocking as of right now:
100 CC
50 LMB
25 HSB
500 BG
10# FHM
10# GSH

All of the numbers are per acre. Any thoughts?

Sorry Sam missed your qustion. I stocked my blue cat 3 years ago he was about 5lbs 24inches. Now he about 3.5 ft and over 20lbs. I would not stock more then one. Im not sure how much LMB and BG he eats, my forage base is very heavy and I dont mind if he keeps the new bass down.

Wow 5lbs a year, that's crazy. I'm think I'm going to stay away from the blues totally. A fish like that would make a snack out of a nice LMB or HSB.

Will my stocking plan work?

What size of each fish are you planning on stocking?

Just be aware that CC can get hook shy VERY quickly. I caught and tagged 2 in my pond, one 3 years ago and one 2 years ago and haven't seen either since. Here's the last one that I caught. It was 29.5" and just shy of 16#. It was tagged and released back into the pond. I shouldd have 4 large CC in the pond, I know I had, because I drained and renovated the pond in 2008. When I let the fish swim into the renovated portion of the pond, I had to hand transfer 4 CC that I couldn't pick up with one hand by grabbing them behind their head. I had to use 2 hands to hold onto the fish. I have only been able to catch 2 of them, and tagged them both. Even with a trot line in the pond all summer (2010), and running it every day. I am trying to catch out all the CC except for those 4. I had stocked 150 of them over the span of a couple of years, but didn't keep harvest records, so I don't know how many are left. The last batch of 100 had the adipose fin clipped, so those can be told apart from any others caught.

10-12 in. CC
6-8 in LMB
6-8 in HSB
3-4 in BG

I'd drop the size of the LMB to 4"-6" and bump the qty of BG to 1,000 up to 2,000. There's a possibility that the LMB that you stock could eat your stocker BG. With the amount of predators you are planning on stocking, they'll need more fish to eat. Make sure that the fish that you purchase are feed trained if you plan on feeding them.

Okay. I don't know where I could get any feed trained LMB. I plan on the LMB feeding on natural forage only.

I would really rather just stock 75 HSB instead of 25 and 50 LMB bass, but I am afraid the HSB wouldnt make it in a unaerated pond. I am willing to try though. I just don't want to risk losing too many of them.