Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction new pond

You are roughly 140 miles from where the majority of the fish places pick up fish in Arkansas.

figure out how/when you could order shiners from Anderson fish farm. you can get a couple hundred THOUSAND small fish for very affordable rates. Makes most sense to put them in before predators are there.

I would certainly think twice, or more, about the crappie. They have massive spawns and the same hinged jaw as largemouth. And, in my area, they spawn early. Thus, they are a direct competitor for groceries. Keeping a balanced predator/prey relationship could be a problem. And, this stuff is all about balance.

I know of one impoundment that has them and are controlled. It’s about 25 acres and near my place. For some reason, you only catch large crappie so they are being controlled by the bass and bluegills. I believe that the crappie must have been added after the bass and bluegills and are thus controlled at spawning time. But, that’s just subjective on my part.

Ok here we go …what I have done…on may 5th I closed the valve on June 29th I added fathead minnows right now I am waiting on my water quality test that I should get back next week if it comes back ok I will order red ear and copper nose and straight BG the folks at Anderson advised I wait until cooler weather for the golden shiners I will add crayfish next spring along with tilapia then in late spring early summer the bass and next fall walleye am looking at the vegetation and will follow your recommendations of American Pond Weed, Duck Potato/Arrowhead, Pickerelweed, and Blue Flag Iris I found this site that has them but will take any recommendations for alternate providers thanks again for all the help guys it is much appreciated

Blind guy

A word of caution...

Don't add crayfish until you have a predator fish population established in the pond that's capable of controlling their numbers.

If you install crayfish without a control species they will eat every single speck of vegetation in your pond.

I had a beautiful stand of APW until I added crayfish. They wiped it out in short order, along with my arrowhead, mud plantain
and pickeral weed. When my HSB and SMB sized up to the point they could swallow adult crayfish the situation started to
improve. The mud plantain and arrowhead have started to come back. I saw a few sprigs of APW back in the spring but the
drought left it high and dry. I'm hoping the winter wet season fills the pond back up to the spillway, or at least gets it close.
If that happens I expect the pondweed will start to make a comeback next year.

good information thank you sir I will postpone the mud bugs till later there will be some in there anyway that were in the drainage before it was dammed up they are prolific little things thanks for the input am making adjustments to our plan to c onside with new information as i get it

I currently have a smb / perch set up. The smb bass dont spawn high numbers like lmb. The smb keep the perch in check. All fish are feed trained. The perch are for eating. The smb are for a good fighting fish and taste pretty good too. Fat head minnows are always a good idea but hard to keep a good supply. I have an area with cattails that provide some shelter. Working on a small pond just to raise minniow to keep up with demand.

this is something I have considered I have a small pond adjacent to the big one I am thinking of just fathead as a food source for the larger pond

Yup, not too big and something you can easily net them out. I went with the smallmouth in the beginning because ive seen too many ponds that end up with a bunch of skinny largemouth bass. The food chain is critical and needs to be managed. With smb you need to keep lmb out. They dont do well together. The lmb will outspawn the smb. The perch is a good mix with the smb. Bluegill not so much. With a pond your size you have options. Lots to think about!