Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Very small pond what to stock in kentucky?

One of our ponds is only 20-30' or so across and 2' to in some spots 3' deep and seems to mostly house hoards of frogs at the moment. It does stay full though so I was thinking of putting some little fish in that might make for an occasional decent meal. I was thinking redear sunfish by themselves. Is there another strategy that might be better?

A few fathead minnows or goldfish to eat the mosquito larvae. It's too small a pond to raise decent sized fish IMO, unless you only raised maybe 5 or 6 fish.

I take your point. I may have underestimated its size a bit (I added a picture) but I doubt it is more than 30-40' in length. Hmm I guess I could pellet feed 1-2 catfish and let the kids name them but I was hoping a little population of sunfish might work.

I think you could pellet feed 5 or 6 catfish in there if you take them out before they get too large.

Ditto on the catfish. The water will get warm in the summer, don't know if it will completely freeze in the winter.

I would throw some FHM in there too to deal with mosquitos.

Just another idea perhaps more in line with your sunfish goal....A few pellet trained Hybrid Bluegills (HBG). They grow fast and limited reproduction. You could also mix a few cats and a few HBG. The larger cats could probably control any HBG spawn if it occurs. Note, I said a few, not 50.

I would keep in mind that the pond is only 3 feet deep. IMO whatever you stock may not survive a Kentucky winter so I would stock pellet trained fish in the spring and harvest late fall.

If you feed fairly regularly, most every day, one or two times each day, you could put in 25 channel cats AND 50-60 Hybrid Bluegill...either way, add the fatheads for mosquito reduction.

If you can't feed regularly, stock considerably less CC and HBG.

For what it's worth, you could even get a dozed "Rosy Reds" at any place that sells tropical fish...rosy reds are fathead minnows that have a morphed color, like an albino. Add a flat surface, like a pallet to your pond for the FHM to spawn under and they will reproduce like crazy!