Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait golden shiner

I will be curious how the GSH/YP/LCS balance out in my SMB pond. I have had good reproduction of all but the SMB where I am uncertain of a successful spawn. I also have RES and FHM in the pond, and added papershell crawdads a few years back as well. Plenty of plant cover in the pond too (lily pads and curly-leaf pondweed). I fished a few minutes last summer with a hard bait and caught one GSH and a very healthy SMB that was larger than I thought possible based on when I put them in and their initial size. I don't fish with live bait so am not concerned about GSH stealing bait (but my neighbor may be). Based on the YP and LCS reproduction, I am guessing that GSH eating eggs may not be that big a problem either, although SMB have different spawning habits and post spawn fry-care behavior. Still too early to evaluate how things will shake out for most species, but right now, the SMB are well fed. The LCS that I rescued below the outflow tube looked fat too.