Is this a terrible idea?
I was thinking of digging a small 100-200sqft "pond" to raise minnows that would be fed from runoff not the overflow from the neighbor. It would be near but above the other ponds. ... The goal would be to simply breed some fatheads or shiners and then transfer the fingerlings into the larger ponds. If I could get a few shiners to breed I would have more fry than I could buy from Anderson minnow. I could also use it to breed PK shrimp to get them established in my large pond.
Is this a worthwhile idea? Is it too small to work? It doesn't need to keep fish year round. How deep should it be?
Thanks
I think this idea has merit ... particularly in conjunction with fry transfer to your larger BOW. There is literature online that you could refer to for parental stocking density for maximizing fry production. Fry transfer is common in minnow production ... just scale down what they have learned to fit your project.
With regard to depth, I think that in part depends on filtration rate, runoff, and whether you have a means of pumping water during drought. If it were at least 2.5 feet deep to discourage wading birds ... I think this would be a plus. As for winterkill ... I would not be discouraged about that. A couple of pounds of adult minnows purchased annually could produce hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of fry. The introduction of these fry into your main pond has the potential to add substantial forage for your bass and bluegill, many, many times the weight of your annual adult minnows purchased.
Over wintering isn't necessarily a good thing. Other things also overwinter, things like damselflies and water boatmen that will greatly reduce recoverable fry in subsequent years. So maybe this structure could be improved if it could be drained and dried annually also?
As for the PK shrimp. Great idea. But I might transfer all of them to the main pond by fall.
I like to see projects like this. Would even be better if you've kept good records of catches so that the effect of the fry transfer might be quantified by the ongoing creel data.
