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

Bassdge:

Welcome to the forum. Here's some cliff notes:

FHM are there in the pond in the beginning to help the LMB get going. Once they are larger than 9"-10", the FHM will be decimated and the LMB will grow quicker feeding on larger prey. You can never have too many FHM for the young LMB. It takes 10# of fish to put 1# on ONE LMB.

With that said, going the 40 LMB to 300 BG will probably result in large BG, and maybe 2# LMB. Typcially the stocking ratio was 10:1 BG/LMB, but lately for quicker growth on LMB that ratio has been increased to somewhere between 20:1 - 30:1, depending on your goals.

Another fish that you might be able to get established is Yellow Perch. If you feed the fish and aerate the pond (both will grow the fish quicker than not doing both) you could have YP in the pond that get to 12"-13".