Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking perch in a 1 acre pond in Central Indiana

Rooted vegetation [macrophytes] will impact your YP recruitment significantly - if it's abundant and dense, recruitment is more likely to be successful with cover available for YOY YP to escape predation. Since it's a new pond, this is an unknown factor currently.

Long range plan: If you can exercise some patience [which is very hard to do I totally understand] I would recommend sourcing species of forage identified above in sufficient numbers to allow for several breeding pairs, wait until they have reproduced at least once, then move on to stocking the other species. Stocking the RES now would not likely impact your forage base establishment efforts, but you can certainly wait on them, too.

Short range plan: You can stock RES and YP immediately [this year] along with GSH and FHM, then stock the WE/HSB as early as this Fall or next season [probably better]. Either plan will work, or something in between, but I prefer the long range approach - but it all depends on your personal preferences.

Initially at least, I think the predators will have an advantage on YP YOY due to lack of dense vegetation - but over time this will change depending on how you manage the pond [how much rooted vegetation you allow to grow]. You can always adjust population of HSB and WE through harvest if you're not seeing any YP recruitment, and supplementally stock either species if you're seeing too much YP recruitment or you can manage the % of vegetation making YP predation easier. Many ways to manage...really comes down to what your goals are. You should be constantly making observations and reading the cues of your fishery and make adjustments to your strategy. Don't lose too much sleep on initial stocking numbers, because the fishery will dictate what you need to do regarding harvest or stocking down the road. If you feel better nudging the initial stocking of HSB and WE down, by all means go for it and invest that capital into a few more LCS, BNM or SFS. If YP go crazy, stock some WE or HSB down the road, the YP fishery will respond accordingly.

1 AC fishery is easy to manage and overcome issues in a short period of time if you make an error here or there. Remember, trying new things and failing is science/knowledge - and I'd say I'm only right 25% of the time on new experiments on my ponds.

Definitely plan on feeding the YP, and consider implementing aeration at some point - aerating a 1 ac pond is affordable and you can follow several members' plans for a DIY system.

If a forage pond is an option for you per Bill, I would surround your primary pond with 3-4 small cells [approx 1,000 sq ft or smaller or larger] that can drain directly into the pond via gate valve. You could use them as reproduction cells for specialty forage like LCS, SPS, BNM or Grass Shrimp - or use them for grow out ponds for your YP, or use them as experimental ponds hybridizing fish. I've done all these things, it's a blast and helps save a lot of money down the road AND adds a ton of science to the forum - which benefits the entire community.