Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain North Alabama pond...Don't want blue gill...HELP

I have a new pond I'm getting ready to stock with something but I don't want blue gill.

I'm looking for low maintenance, clear water, and fun fishing and swimming. What are my best options?

nathad, it will be pretty much impossible to have "clear" water in such a fertile area without lots of chemicals and filtration.

What kind of fish do you like catching, and consider "fun fishing"? What is the size of your pond? What is the water source...creek, spring, rain/runoff, well water?

In a pond setting, I think of filtration and clear water meaning a lot of plants in the pond. With a lot of plants in the pond you can eliminate a lot of Filamentous and planktonic algae too. You can use chemicals to keep the swimming area clean.

I'd look into Redear Sunfish (RES), Hybrid Striped Bass (HSB) and possibly Hybrid Bluegills (HBG), with some hybrid Blue Cats. Adjust predator numbers to keep the panfish in check, and don't forget that you are the ultimate predator, so that means taking fish out of the pond to eat. It's impossible to have a strictly C&R pond.

Pond is about 3/4 of an acre with a good portion of it being 12-15'+ deep. Feed by rain runoff and a small wet weather spring.

I've never real been a big fisherman, but I like to catch a little more than fish if you know what I mean.

I'd like fish with at least some fight and fish that are good eating fish.

I don't want blue gill or any other fish prone to nipping or biting swimmers...playing in the water will be a much higher priority than swimming.

One option. Best swimming pond could be if you just add a few tilapia each year to keep the algae controlled. Plan to fish them out and remove most of the offspring when they die in Dec-Jan at 50-52F water temp. If you don't like that plan you can always add sport fish later as you learn the pond fertility and its habits. I have just tilapia in a few swimming - domestic water use ponds, water stays clear, and owners do not complain the tilapia bother swimmers. If you need some predators add several HSB for the kids to occasionally feed and catch. Regular bass will reproduce and produce too many predators for the best results of the tilapia FA eating machinery.

I don't want blue gill or any other fish prone to nipping or biting swimmers...playing in the water will be a much higher priority than swimming. [/quote]

In that case I'd not recommend HBG. They are more aggressive than CNBG.

What about a HSB pond??

Can that be done without a lot of maintenance or fish feeding?

and without bluegill.

Well you have to feed the HSB something?? If you don't feed them and you don't have BG for them to eat your gonna have to have some shiners or RES or something. HSB won't live on snails....

RC

Plus the HSB do not reproduce so they cannot feed on their offspring. A few per acre might subsist on invertebrates and tadpoles and don't expect growth beyond 8"-10". If you are interested in a fishery like this then just add commonly available and only several 20-30 LMB fingerlings per acre. They will thrive better than the HSB, consume most of their offspring, and not grow much larger than 10" unless they get more food than small bass and invertebrates. If a few die due to angling they will be replaced by some offspring.

So just the LMB and no RES?