Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Stocking sizes and shellcrackers

The amount of fish of each species is determined by your goals. If your goal is to grow large LMB, stock 30 to 50 Bluegills per Largemouth.

If your goal is large Bluegills, then only stock 10 Bluegills per Largemouth.

I would stock 10%-25% of the Bluegill population as Redears.

For a goal of larger sized LMB, stock 50-75 LMB per acre. For a goal of large BG, stock 100-150 per acre and remove any bass that exceeds 14".

Talk to the fish supplier as to what size of fish are available, and what size the fish are in that particular size "slot".

Fish aren't laid out on a table and measured with a ruler, they are graded by width. Fish of a certain width typically are "X" length. There is no way possible to measure 100's let alone 1,000's of BG for length in a timely manner.

The way I view fish sales, if a hatchery says fish are from 2"-4" in length, then the majority of fish will be 2" and a few 4".

Another thing, fish are sold on the wholesale market per pound, but they are sold on the retail market by the individual fish. Even though I sell fish as part of the business, I don't like that method, but until someone comes up with a better method, there isn't anything I can do about it.

Google "SRAC" and then click on the "publications" tab. Read about how fish are graded according to size.

Some other cliff notes:

Stock fish in a pond of a size that the "stockers" won't be eaten by the predators, unless they are stocked specifically as forage fish. Typically that means fish 1/3 or larger than the largest LMB in the pond.

Look in the archives and print out the relative weight charts. Harvest the under performers in your pond.