Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking A Swimming Pond

I drained my pond last year to try and locate a leak. I did find a sand vein and cut it off and removed all the muck. (appx 40 hours on a bobcat) I am not sure if it's fixed yet or not, but wanted to get some stocking info just in case. Before I drained it we had BG , LMB and CC. We aren't so much worried about fishing as we are for recreation but would like to be able to have some fish to eat now and then. The problem we had swimming with BG stocked is the nibbling on swimmers. The only issue I had with the LMB is they completely wiped out any bullfrogs we had. I don't plan on stocking any CC this time because I think they tend to stir up the bottom a little and they take up a lot of resources. The pond is going to be about 3/4 acre and 14 ft deep when (if) full. When we drained it I had 60 CC about 1 /12 pounds each. Took them down to a friends pond. Too many for my pond I think. I have been reading on here about yellow perch. Will these keep any unwanted crawfish out? Or will I still need to stock LMB? Can they be stocked in Illinois? Are they good eating? Will I still need a predator to control them? I plan on buying some FHM first thing this spring when they have the fish days going on at our local farm store and was wanting to get some ideas on what else to get.

Another issue, what about an easy, fast growing plant for fish cover? Any ideas? I have a primrose that always seems to come back from time to time even after spraying. Is this something I should encourage? Or try to eradicate like I have been doing?

Jason, Yp are very good eating. If it were my pond I would put in YP, SMB, HSB and WE. Also the FM just don't seem to last. It would really benefit you to put in BNM and SFS. As for the plants, Bill Cody suggested Eel grass for my 1/4 acre pond and it has worked great. Hybrid Lilies are nice also, not aggressive at all.
If Rainman doesn't respond, pm him. I'd suggest the same for Bill D but he responds to everything. Always says that's just his two cents. If I had two cents for each of his posts I'd be in the Bahamas right now.

I would add RES to Bob-O's list of fish.

Thanks for the quick response gentlemen. Just a few questions. The RES wont nibble like the regular BG? I was thinking of getting those already but wasn't sure if they would bite or not. And on the fish acronyms, what are the WE,and SFS? I couldn't find the post that list them all. Could I pretty much stock everything at once? Or wait on the bass?

WE =wall eye, SFS= spot fin shiners. There is a post in common question and answers with acronyms. Don't know if res nibble or not. Good question.

Cmm

Jason - here is the link to the abbreviations.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92442#Post92442

Are you willing to feed the fish for added harvest of fish? Feeding fish does cause more nutrients which adds more plant growth. Swimming pond owners often do not feed fish to help a little to keep algae reduced.
Feeding or not feeding fish will help determine what species and numbers should be stocked to achieve your goals.

RES only nibble or will bump swimmers during spawning season when swimmers are in the spawning bed area. One way to eliminate this is put in a cement beach area, thus RES will have to spawn someplace else away from swimmers. YP-SMB do not bother swimmers - guaranteed. Your best option might be YP and SMB? Use no largemouth with yellow perch if you want easy management. SMB or LMB by themselves is one option swimming pond owners use in my area, however the bass only grow to 8"-10" without added forage.

Thanks Bill. Probably wont feed at all. I have been doing some reading and the yellow perch sound very good. I have found a source that has the "fish days" at two local stores. Unfortunately all they have on my list are the RES,FHM,and GSH. Does anyone know a good source for the YP,SMB,HSB that would deliver to South Central Illinois? I am about an hour from St. Louis. I guess if I found a source I could just order all the fish from them. I am a little worried about getting regular BG mixed with the RES if I bought from the local store. Looks like both stores use Nemo Bait and Fisheries. Anyone heard of them? I just want to make sure I am getting what I am paying for since this will be a little different stocking that is the usual around here. Most everyone does the BG,CC,LMB and that's it.

The YP/SMB/HSB/RES/WE combination works well. FHM will nibble, but the mouth is so small, it's more of a light tickle you barely notice. SMB will control larger crawfish, and RES will go after the juvenile craws/snails/leeches. 20 or so CC will not stir up the bottom, and can help keep things cleaner.

What part of Illinois are you in, Jason?

""CC will not stir up the bottom, and can help keep things cleaner."" How do you define "cleaner"? How are they cleaning?

BG bluegill mixed in with RES is a big problem especially when buying from "traveling" fish trucks and should be a major concern for a pond primarily for swimming. The larger the stocker RES the easier it is to correctly identify them. Sunfish at 2"-3" are very hard even for those with experience to visually separate. RES at 5"-7" are pretty easily recognized from other sunfish when the identifier has some training.

Yeah I was thinking that the traveling trucks would be an easy way to screw things up. It would only take two BG to mess my whole plan up. I am just north of Vandalia,Illinois Rainman.

Eating dead fish and some other forms of detritus that could reduce water quality and increase BOD or anoxic conditions.

I am pretty sure catfish are eating dead animal types of detritus and not plant based detritus. If CC ate plant detritus ponds with CC would have little if any dead organic detritus. I can show anyone numerous pond with CC and lots of bottom mucky stuff. Tilapia eat a whole lot more plant based detritus compared to CC. I would never rely on CC to clean the bottom of a pond.

Jason,

Just to be clear, I see you removed 60 CC. Is your thought that 20 will not make as much turbidity (mess) so the pond will be clearer than before or are you thinking the CC will actually "clean" the pond?

Well I removed the 60 because we completely drained it to try and repair the leak. I didn't just want to waste them so it was either clean them all or just give them to a buddy to put in his pond. I did not really want to mess with cleaning them since I had a lot of work in front of me so I just gave them to the friend. I love to catch and eat catfish, always have, it's just it doesn't seem practical to have them in the pond because they really aren't self sustainable in my opinion. I mean they don't spawn unless you put the correct habitat(i.e. milk cans or pipe). Even then the juveniles are usually wiped out by predators. I just don't see the point to stock them just to re-catch them at a later time. After seeing the pond drained and seeing the catfish we removed it just seemed to me that they would take up a lot of resources that really isn't necessary, not to mention the bio-mass they produce. Seems to me you would be better served to leave the room and resources for a more easily produced fish like the yellow perch everyone is recommending. Is my line of thinking completely off? I don't mind stocking a few if it is beneficial though.

Beneficial to stock CC is a relative term depending on one's goals for the pond. CC have been known to spawn in ponds without correct habitat. Lack of or inadequate predation of CC fry and fingerlings is a good way to get recruitment of CC.

Jason,
My pond may be a little north of yours, but not much. I have RES, YP, and SMB in my pond. The RES have not bothered any swimmers yet. This coming spring will be my first with fish (besides FHM) in the pond, so fist with spawning RES. I think the water will still be too cold to swim in, by the time they complete spawning.
I've had BG bite me, my wife, and the kids while swimming at Tablerock Lake in Southern Mo. I was not going to put BG in my pond no matter what. We swam in our pond quite a bit last year while the YP were getting up to 9" in size. Never touched one while swimming. The FHM will come up and check you out, in large schools, but it does not bother me. I suspect with the addition of the SMB and a few HSB I won't have as many FHM this coming summer.
For what it's worth, I also run a feeder, not a lot, just a few seconds a day. I don't think it has lowered water quality very much. There probably is a bit more algae in the water, but it does not impact swimming. Believe me, my wife would not be in there swimming if there were any water or fish issues. I had to remove one water snake, and one snapping turtle to get her in the water.
We have left the catfish out for now. I have the fish in for grandkids amusement, and I love eating them. We've found the YP to be delicious.

Thanks Setter. I think I have decided already with the help of all of you. I think I will try to stock YP,RES,BNM,FHM this year and SMB,HSB and maybe a few WE next year. Does this seem like a suitable stock? Now does anyone have any ideas on numbers or most important a good source to buy these fish?

Hopefully some of the pros will jump in here pretty soon with fish numbers. I'd get more than one opinion if I were you. There's different factors involved in determining the number of fish in a given pond size.
Also, if you find a source for BNM, please let me know. I'd really like to get some.
Thanks
Jeff

My experience is YP & RES often struggle to maintain adequate numbers after several years of reproduction by the SMB. This generally occurs in years 5-7 and beyond. If you want more control of the numbers of predators and have more forge fish long term then just stock a few HSB who will not reproduce and tend to not overeat the food source as easy as reproducing SMB. Add and remove HSB based on how many forage fish you are generally seeing/catching. If you decide to stock SMB focus to keep their offspring at low density and use pellet trained SMB who will often eat pellets and not prey as intensively on the forage fish.

That makes sense Bill. This way I can control things a little easier. I didn't realize HSB didn't spawn. Do you have any suggestions on numbers? Could I go ahead and stock the HSB at the same time if I stock smaller ones?
Little over 1/2 acre pond with average depth at around 9 feet I guess. Deepest will be 14 ft. What do the below numbers sound like?

250 YP
200 RES
50 HSB
10 lbs FHM
10 lbs of BNM or GSH if I can not locate the BNM

Not really sure on these numbers since I have never stocked any of these fish before except the FHM. Anyone who has any thoughts please advise.

Depending on goals, HSB stocking recommendations are around 20-25/acre - helps if you pellet feed, which I think you'll need to in this scenario. I think your HSB stocking numbers are pretty high, depending on your goals. I'd recommend initial stocking of 5-10, and supplementally stock 3-5 annually until you hit the 20-25 mark, adjusting that annual number for morts and harvesting. That way you have multiple size classes present and when your oldest fish die there's not a huge gap in the fishery. I think the YP and RES numbers are OK. I'd also stock crayfish to help feed the RES and manage vegetation. I strongly recommend feeding to help your forage base, YP and HSB grown fast. RES are also reported to take to Optimal fairly readily. Sorry for my unsolicited take, Cody's the expert and will be along shortly.

TJ's HSB stocking advice is very good based on his experience. Delay stocking the 3-5 HSB annually until you see reproduction from the YP and or RES. Then that fall or next spring begin adding the add stock HSB. A total of 15-20 HSB in about 3/4 acre will consume a lot of small fish. Use that number as a temporary density plateau. Thus don't add more HSB until you see what is happening to the forage fish and small panfish densities and their relative composition. If you have a few HSB die due to improper angler handling, then add replacements. At that point you should have enough experience to proceed with additional stocking after 4-5 yrs or ask us for advice. Keep us advised as to your progress. Happy pondmeistering.

I agree with what TJ and Bill C. said. In other words, listen to what your pond is telling you.

Yes, sensei...and again, strongly consider a feeding program - it will result in faster growing fish and will relieve a ton of pressure off your forage base.

Thank you all for the advice. I will follow these stocking instructions as soon as weather and time permits. Thanks again!