Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose small water Walleye - Bill Cody feedback

Thanks for all for chiming in!

After reading and learning as much as I could since 2013 I decided that for myself there is no possible way to balance a LMB and BG or LMB and HBG population in a small northern pond. Every lake under 100 acres around here is eutrophic with cottages or farms and run off fertilizer and silt issues. They all are loaded with stunted LMB and BG. I grew up only catching dink BG and 12" bass no matter where I went. Almost every pondowner on this forum struggles on this front. Those who stock HBG under the hope that they are 'sterile' end up finding out that they just get unwanted pure GSF instead. Then they have LMB AND LMB wanna-bees GSH who try to outcompete each other in eating.

I knew I didn't have time or interest in catching LMB in sufficient number to cull back into balance. I don't eat LMB either. Also, achieving enough forage for LMB was going to be a tall order in a small pond. Standard bluegill may pull of 2-3 spawns but that isn't always predictable here. I didn't want to have to stress about that balance and since it presented a situation that guaranteed constant battle, lots of stress about which species is underfed or over stocked I was committed to do everything I could to never let a BG in or a LMB. SMB someday? sure. LMB hopefully never.... or, I guess it would be OK to put ONE adult LMB in (prefer male).

My initial thought was Perch and minnow only pond and then when I was comfortable with how things went I would pick bonus forage options, plus a bonus unique predator (like NP, or Walleye) and then try to add forage that might be unique such as lake chubsuckers or even different shiner species.

That led me to stock a few LCS which I don't think survived, and the SFS which are doing awesome for some reason.

The RES and LES were also attempts to see if a fish that is 'out of range' for my pond might still survive but apparently they did not.

I'm now slowly starting to add a few pumpkinseed to see what happens. Right now there are 3 in there that I know of but not sure if all male or mix male/female. We'll see if there are nests next year.

So much more to say... I succeeded once on PK shrimp, then failed to keep them going. Failed on crayfish stocking, probably not enough cover.

No, no riprap, just a bare bowl and this year tons of algae. No idea why. Raking constantly, not fun at all.

My next experiment was to try some HSB but sourcing may be impossible due to MI laws.