I have to lime a 9 acre, very low pH pond that has never been properly stocked. It is 6-9 years old and according to the neighbor, he had bucket stocked it to some extent. It's to cold to really catch any amount of fish right now(46), but I have found one dead GSF on the shore.
I have a lot of work to do to get it ready for liming, fertilizing, etc. I have had advice to get it electrofished to see what was in it when the weather warms up, but I'm not very hopeful knowing the history and seeing the GSF.
So here's my thoughts. I want to stock it with FHM, TFS, CNBG in early spring, then F1 Bass in the summer and maybe some Hybrid SB in the next year or two. So here's what I'm thinking.
1. Get it electrofished when the weather warms up. And chance it being full of trash fish and have to nuke it anyway. Losing time to be stocking forage fish in the spring.
2. Or would it be feasible to get some hydrated lime, blast the pH thru the roof killing everything and start over now while I have time. If how much hydrated lime would it take?
3. Or is the bucket stocking fixable?
So what do you guys think about my situation, any other option?
