Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait FHM, GSH Lifecycle Confusion

I built a 1/8 acre baitfish pond last fall & stocked it with 3 pounds of FHM & 1 pound of GSH. This spring I stocked it further with 3 pounds of GSH & 1 pound of FHM (these were the red rosy variety) for a total of 4 pounds each of FHM & GSH. This summer, the fall stocking of FHM bred like crazy and over the summer some of the rosies from the spring stocking managed to breed also - although it doesn't appear to be much.

There's a lot of conflicting information about time to sexual maturity and lifespan for these minnows. For FHM I've seen lifespan stated beween 1-3 years. My FHM YOY have grown quickly but I don't see how they're going to reach sexual maturity by next spring. Is this normal? I have been taking some of the adults out and putting them in my main pond for supplemental feeding, which was the purpose of building the baitpond, but now I'm wondering if this is a mistake and will leave me short of breeders come next spring. The GSH look pretty much the same as when I stocked them so I have no idea how long to sexual maturity for them. The pond was built with no cover or vegetation for ease of seining. Everywhere they say GSH lay their eggs in vegetation. Can GSH reproduce in a pond with no predators and no vegetation? How old or close to sexual maturity are GSH when you get them from the fish dealers?

How should I proceed? I don't want to have to wait any longer than necessary but I need to get things sustainably established in the baitpond. I did not plan on seining at all this first year and have just been using minnow traps and tried using a throw net for the GSH, which didn't work too well because of their relatively low density.