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

jammer:

Welcome to the forum!

Do some reading about Hybrid Bluegills and Hybrid Striped Bass with the Redears. Also, have you thought about Smallmouth Bass?

If you go the hybrid route you won't have a population explosion, and it'd be more of a put-n-take fishery. You can always add BG and LMB, but once they are in there, it's hard to change a pond over to something else without killing and starting over.

Some cliff notes:

Without habitat for the small fish to hide in, the predators will have a field day.

In smaller ponds, without human fishing pressure and humans removing LMB, they tend to overtake a pond and become stunted. It might take 5 - 8 or more years, it all depends on cover, forage and stocking rates.

CC have (at least in the ponds that I know) become hard to catch once caught and released once or twice. Once they pass 3# or so, they compete with LMB for food.

Roughly 20% of the surface acreage should be cover for the fish.

If you pump water in from the stream, make sure to use a fine mesh screen at one end or the other so you don't introduce unwanted fish from the stream.