Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking 3/4 Acre Pond SW Ohio

New pond being built this Fall/Winter , size TBD, but probably in the 1/2-1 Acre range.
Looking for the main species to be HSB.
I was thinking HBG and possibly SMB as well.
Hope to have all pellet trained.
My plan is to aerate and pellet feed.

List of questions :
If pond is completed and starts filling in winter any issue stocking some trout only first for fun and to feed?
In Spring want to stock 8-12in HSB , 4-6 in HBG and 8-12in SMB.
Given that I am not trying to create a food chain other than pellets would this be possible?
What about stocking #'s?
Could I do 75 HSB , 200 HBG and 30 SMB? If I pellet feed would it be worth/necessary to stock some FHM or other forage ?

Looking for suggestions , you can probably tell I am impatient , been waiting for my own pond for awhile and have 3 kids and family so it will get some heavy fishing pressure. Want a pond that I can ladder stock and keep the hook shy down with new stock each year/season.

FWIW I'm one of those guys that is not real enthusiastic about having a pond dependent on pellets alone to sustain my fish. I am not a pro but IMHO HBG will not provide enough offspring to sustain your stocking plan should a reason arise that prevents you from feeding pellets for a period of time (recent decision by unnamed pellet supplier to leave pond owners with out pellets for several months comes to mind). I would stock a minnow that has a chance of sustaining first like GSH as a fall back plan. FHM notoriously disappear pretty quick.

Just my 1 cent....again, I am not a pro......

The plan sounds feasable and well worth a try. Your stocking numbers are a little high (15%) for HSB heavy feeding per per acre because it may cause some water quality and algae issues. Maybe bump up your HBG 30-50%. Locating pellet trained 8"+ SMB will be a big challenge. If everything is pellet trained at stocking you should not need to add FHM. The trout will lead the new stockers to the pellet feeding area. Keep us updated about your progress.

I would stock the trout. I think they are fun at feeding time which it sounds like you want for the kids. I also get a kick out of how they will jump way out of the water at other times besides at feeding time. For me that adds a bit of unexpected fun at any possible time. I assume they are chasing forage, so for that reason I would add in FHM just to give them something to chase, especially in times when there isn't ice cover. I have put anywhere from 20 to 50 in my 1 acre pond without problems, but they seem to do best around the 25 mark.

Thanks for replies. How deep will pond need to be before I stock the trout? Can I stock at 4-5ft as pond is filling? I 've read some about over stocking the HSB and then removing some of the under performers. Given that this pond will have heavy fishing pressure could that be an option? If I were to stock closer to 100/125 then remove 25-50 after the first growing season or before they reach 2lbs or would that amount of feed cause issues. Was looking at Jones hatchery for stocking, 50lb min for trout which might be a bit much for what I need, anywhere else for trout in SW Ohio? I think all other fish I will be using Jones.

My thought on the initial over stocking was that it would provide more fishing opportunity in the first year or two .

I've tried to read about carrying capacity but seems to have a lot of variables. Given that pond is 3/4 acre, aerated , pellet fed and 'normal' water quality how many lbs of fish ?

Trout will not live in your pond beyond mid-June. Adding the trout as it fills could cause some gill stress issues if the water is muddy from a non grassed runoff and waves slapping the mud shoreline.

beastman, you can get trout up in Urbana, right on US-68 @ Freshwater Farms. They have rainbows and browns of all different sizes. Their price list is out on their website. I have purchased a few things from them and have been happy. Like any fish farm they try to push fish on you so go in with a plan and make use of the word No.

FW Farms in Urbana probably has a better selection of trout than Jones.

FW farms looks nice, kids would enjoy as well.

+1 on the kids enjoying it. I take my four all the time and they never want to leave. I would recommend stopping by Young's Dairy with them for lunch on the way up. It is on US-68 a few miles north of Yellow Springs, weekends are crazy busy, weekdays are much nicer if you can swing it. They will love you forever!