Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Going in Backwards

IIRC Greg stocks forage fish for the LMB at a rate of 20 to 40 forage fish per LMB. IIRC he'll put 50 LMB in per acre. He doesn't stock LMB that are a size that can eat the CNBG in the pond, they are advanced fingerlings, that feed on the FHM, YOY GSH and YOY CNBG. But they grow dang fast, and start eating their way up the food chain quickly.

Here's some numbers to crunch. Like what was said, figure an average of 10# of forage fish to put 1# on 1 LMB. Keep those figures in mind.

A fertile pond that isn't aerated, nor has a supplemental feeding program can sustain roughly 300# of fish per surface acre. Not fertile?, drop that figure.

Bump that up to around 500# per surface acre if the pond has a good aeration system designed for it.

Bump THAT figure by another 200# or so if that same pond has a supplemental feeding program, feeding a good quality food.

Now, run those numbers back thru the 10# of food/pound of added weight to a LMB. Plan on roughly 100# of LMB per surface acre (max) of all sizes. That could be 10 fish 10# each, etc. Less if you want them to grow quick.

It's your call on what to do. With a goal of growing large LMB, either shock it to remove as many LMB as you can, fish the heck out of it and remove every LMB you catch, or add a bunch more forage fish. The LMB that you added could possibly spawn this year, which add even more LMB to the mix. I'd send a water sample to Texas A&M and tell us the results. You may have to lime, you may have to fertilize. If the water isn't fertile, then no matter how many fish you put in, it won't grow big fish. Without good water quality, the fish won't grow. Like trying to grow 200+ bu./acre of corn. If the soil doesn't have all the nutrients that the corn needs, you won't get the production, and that's what you are doing, is producing fish.

If it was my pond, I'd:
1) 2)Get the water tested, and lime/fertilize as required per the test.
2) 1)Call in a shock boat, and remove as many of the LMB as possible before they spawn.
3) Get the forage fish population established first before adding any more LMB.
4) Once the forage fish population is established, then add feed trained LMB, with good genetics - down your way, I'd go with Florida Genetics.
5) Get a feeding program established. First for the forage fish (which is what the CNBG are) and then later for the LMB.
6) Start researching aeration systems. With a fertile pond, the biomass will get large, and sooner rather than later, the O2 levels might drop. You don't want to go thru all this work just to have a fish kill. If the pocket book will allow it, I'd go with a bottom diffusion system to make the whole water column useable to the fish, and also go with surface agitation. The more O2 in the water, the better the water quality, and the less stress the fish will be under.

CNBG are the backbone of the forage fish population. Golden Shiners will help too. Threadfin Shad (Not Gizzard Shad) will help the pond greatly if they will survive in your area. Only when the the LMB are greater than "X" size would you consider stocking Gizzard Shad. But, that's way down the road if at all.

Go to the Pond Boss store and buy the book "Perfect Pond" and "Raising Trophy Bass". That will help answer a lot more questions that you never thought to ask.

But we'll still be here for ya!

What do you have in the pond for cover for the fish? (both forage fish and LMB)

David, I removed the duplicate post in the "new member introduction area" so that all the answers would be here under one post.