Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Farm pond for food fish ideas needed.

Hi DaveS
Welcome from another Michigan pond owner and avid learner from the forum. I'm thinking others are better able to answer your questions about using your pond for food production as the goals are different. Just like when people manage a pond for maximum clarity for swimming vs maximum fertility for supporting the food chain there are very different strategies.

A few opinions I'll share:

1. I don't think a warmouth can catch a healthy YP. Maybe a baby one but past 3-4" those things can move like a bullet. I suspect the YP will grow freely beyond 3-4" but that is in my opinion what you want since the YP are the best eating fish out there and you want them to survive and grow. YP also are easy to control in their numbers by angling and eating vs letting the females grow and reproduce. You also can alter reproduction by removing their eggs in late March or leaving them in depending on your goals.

2. Do you have a good source for pure strain warmouth? I've never seen them available at fish farms

3. Crayfish are great, careful to exclude rusty crayfish if possible. Crayfish will need some refuge (rip rap or other structures) or YP will eat the ones they can fit in their mouth. Larger crayfish will multiple greatly taking out your underwater plants and then muddying the water unless you have large aggressive predator like SMB or LMB to keep numbers down, or unless you take AWAY the crayfish habitat or places they can hide.

4. If you can find common shiners, emerald shiners or spotfin shiners, stock those. They reproduce and can withstand quite a bit of predation. FHM tend to feed in the first round of fish but disappear and have to be added again year by year.

5. Will you aerate?

6. How are you determining the water in your groundwater pond will stay cool in the summer? Do you have natural springs or a source of creek water replacing the ground water? Most of us struggle with water temps climbing in the dog days of summer even in a ground water pond with some replacement of ground water at the bottom of the pond.