Put the FHM's in as soon as you can and give them a year to do what they do...you will be amazed at the amount of reproduction. Just make sure to put in plenty of structure for them to lay eggs on. I used 7 stacks of 2 or three pallets each in my 1/4 acre pond worked very well. Now, the FHM's in the pond at the time of stocking fingerlings will be too big for the YP to eat, but they (the FHM's) will produce an army of fry that will boos the growth of the newly stocked YP.
As for crawdads, I put in way too many the year before stocking the game-fish and spent all last year trapping them out. I will be trapping them this year too. If I could get a do-over. I would have stocked the crawdads at the same time as the fingerling game-fish OR maybe the year after. My overstocked crawdads went in the pond from 1" to 3 inches long and grew to 5" long, reproduced, and their offspring outgrew the gap of my game-fish....then they all reproduced again. I do not see any smaller craws as, I believe, they get eaten for the most part. I ended up with a couple thousand that were too big for my game fish to eat. My pond has about 25% of the shoreline lined with riprap and that seems to make them happy, too happy maybe...lol. I stocked the northern Virile crawdads and they do not burrow. The only craws that I know that burrow are the ones that live in the fields and rarely frequent ponds. There's no reason to stock those kind...they will leave the water for your yard. yikes!
I cannot speak for GAM's, I have no experience with them.
Last edited by Quarter Acre; 03/18/21 11:24 AM.
