Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Stock or feed established pond?

I'm new to owning a pond, we just got some property with a 2.5 acre strip pit. Previous owner had it 30+ years and claims to have decent size bass, bluegill, catfish and large crappie. Should I do anything to it this spring? Any type of stocking or any type of fatheads for feeding? We have a local co-op having a fish day in a few weeks and didnt know if I should look into picking anything up for feeding or stocking? I'm new to this so please be gentle....lol

What are your goals for the pond?

My humble advice after being in a similar situation years ago:

Absolutely DO NOT buy any fish right now.

Get a scale and a ruler, go fishing, and record species, lengths, and weights. Target different species over a few days' fishing and report the data here.

Weclome to pond ownership. The first thing to do is to get a good feel for what is in the pond. This can be done using many methods and as many as your efforts can allow.

Fishing with hook and line, netting/seining, trapping, &/or electro shock survey (by far the fastest and easiest, but also the mose expensive) are a few common ways to figure out what you have.

If your goal is like mine, to go fishing in it most every weekend, even if it is just for 30 minutes, start there. Great ponds do not always produce great fishing right away so keep that in mind. If the pond fishes to your liking..your done! Maybe? You could start a feeding schedule and see what that does. This can help determine what is in the pond to an extent and is ussually fun for the owner/s. I know I enjoy it.

Once you get a feel for the types of fish and populations of each, then and only then should you try stocking changes.... You could cause changes that you wish you hadn't.

EDIT: Bocomo beat me to the punch, but we pretty much paralleled one another. A good double dose of the same advise never hurt anybody.

Thanks for the replies, our property is about 5 min from our house so we plan on using it as a weekend getaway. Hopefully fish it on weekends and some evenings, we have a 7 yr old and 11 yr old boys that love to spend time outdoors and fishing so this was a great purchase for us. My goal is to have a great place for family and friends to enjoy fishing and hopefully pull some good size fish. The previous owner kept a "logbook" in the cabin so friends and family could document sizes and quantities of fish caught there. I didnt think it was of any importance to me so he took it with him when he sold the property, that log sounds to be priceless now....lol

It's a good sign that the previous owner was keeping logs. Hopefully that proves that they paid attention to the pond more than not. It's time to start your own log!