Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat New 1/4 acre pond

Hi y’all! My 0.25 acre pond is almost complete in a very arid part of SW Texas. My pond builder just completed covering the bentonite layer with 12” of caliche material & topsoil that came from the hole. My plan is to grow the largest BG’s I can while providing a source of drinking water for deer, turkeys and doves. Thinking of stocking CNBG at this point strictly for the size aspect. Possibly some RESF and traditional BG as well.

I just ordered an aeration kit from Amazon that will be here next week. The builder will be back at some point between now and then to construct a waterfall (aesthetics and further aeration). I’ll be supplementing our low avg annual rainfall with my water well. I first considered fencing the pond to prevent feral pigs from wallowing and making a mess of it, but was told pigs will only help seal it by their use. (For the record, I have about as much regard for feral hogs as I do fire ants and coyotes, but if they’re not detrimental to the pond, … 🤷🏻‍♂️)

I’ve been advised to create fish structure with cinder blocks and construction adhesive and to lean more towards vertical, rather than horizontal. Considering the small size of the pond, I’ve been advised against using natural materials such as logs, dead trees, etc. as they will decompose/rot over time and be messy, as in future muck. I’ll be adding a dump truck load of pea gravel to one end of the pond for bedding purposes.

With all this in mind, please consider offering your advice on any/all of the above. I’m particularly interested in recommendations for structure/habitat, growing food/bait, specific BG species to stock, etc. I’d also like to know how soon I can start adding fish once I have the pond full of water. I’ve also seen it said that new pond owners should concentrate on growing forage or bait first before stocking with the target fish. If that’s true, where should I start? Minnows? What about small crawdads or fresh water shrimp? I’ve also seen “beneficial” bacteria for sale. Are there certain plants I should consider as well in and/or around it?

Finally, should I add dye from the get-go to help prevent unwanted masses of algae, or wait until a problem actually arises? I may not have much of an issue with that with all the aeration, but I don’t know. Anything else you can add will be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!

Welcome to PB. I have a pond that size. After about 40+
years, it is now a mutant green sunfish pond. Since it’s a mile from the house(I don’t live there), it gets fed when I show up on the property.

One consideration is that every predator needs prey and every prey needs a predator to keep it from over spawning, fouling the water, and having a fish killing oxygen crash. I would probably add some channel cats; about 25. They seldom pull off a successful spawn so shouldn’t over crowd it.

Also start with about 5 pounds of fathead minnows. Over time, they will disappear but will help jump start the bluegills. Add some dry brush for them to spawn on.

Have fun with it and don’t lie to the wife about expenses. You’re gonna get caught.

Thanks. How soon after filling it up can I begin adding FHM’s? BG’s?

Growing really big BG in a small pond requires special planning, proper management and diligent efforts. I am working on a post of basic requirements for growing big BG in a small pond. Stay tuned.

Deer Tex, give them a couple of months before adding bass. If you want catfish, this is also the time. Once bass get established, stocking time is over.

That said, I have about 2 acres with bass, big bluegills, a couple of huge hybrid stripers and some really big cats. I’m going to put in about 10 pounds of fathead minnows when the 105 to 109 weather ends. They won’t last long due to quick predation. That’s ok with me. I never see a small fish so they are all getting eaten.

I also have a 1/4 acre mutant green sunfish pond that I’ll add about 5 pounds of fatheads. Due to limited spawning, those guys are getting skinny. They don’t spawn. This one is about a mile from the house so I toss pellets when I get there. I’ll also add some fatheads here as a quick snack.

Watching for it, Bill. Thanks!

Thanks, Dave. Considering the small size of my pond, I wasn’t planning to stock any predator fish other than BG, CNBG and RES. I really want to get the Fatheads & possibly PK shrimp started first. I’ll gladly set up a deer feeder with pellets too, but think the minnows and shrimp will be the best start. Still wait a couple of months for the forage, or forage right away, then the predators later? Thnx!

Did I read that correctly that you don't want any fish other than BG/RES in the pond with a goal of the biggest BG you can produce? Or are you thinking you will delay predators until the BG/RES get started?

I thought that might be confusing after I posted it. The BG/RES will be the predators of the minnows and possibly freshwater shrimp. Sorry that was as clear as mud.

There is a problem with a BG only pond. Bill Cody's post that he mentioned above will help greatly but you need something in the water to take out large amounts of the BG spawns. Trophy BG ponds work by allowing a select few to get big and the predators take out the smalls. Last time I googled BG spawn amount per year it was about 60,000 eggs annually. These are per fish numbers. Think of what that looks like if you have 200-500 fish in the pond. Southern waters more and northern waters less.

Due to the mouth size of the BG, they will not be eating enough of the fry and you'll end up with an overcrowded pond full of small fish.

Most everything I have seen on Trophy BG ponds is using LMB and allow them to stunt. Anything that gets above 12-14" is culled from the pond. You want those small bass to do your work for you eating all those little BG while you promote the best looking BIG ones. Many others on the forum with loads more experience that I have but I would encourage research and reading for sure.

Let’s think about all this and not forget the intended GOALS for the small ¼ ac pond.

GOALS were

Save and annually review my suggested requirements to verify and remind you that you are doing the right things and staying on track for growing trophy bluegill.

You can grow some really big BG in 1/4ac pond. It know it can be done and I have done it, but you will need to do all the right things in the long run to get consistently big BG year after year in a small 0.25ac pond. A small pond can easily get out of balance with too many fish of the wrong sizes for the intended GOALS of growing big BG.

The traditional pond stocking philosophy of first adding forage minnows and bluegill as food for producing big sized largemouth is not the GOAL here of DeerTexas. See my commentary at the end. He wants to grow big BG. Thus experience and studies have shown one should use a different stocking plan than the plan for growing big bass.

For consistently growing big BG you want to have overcrowded smallish bass that are very efficient predators for the annual big crops of small BG that will be produced by the prolific BG spawners. More on this later.

I think to be successful, one of the first things DeerTexas needs to do lots more homework. The more homework you do and understand the concepts of carrying capacity and what it takes to grow trophy class BG the better the chances are of achieving your GOALS of producing big BG and then in the LONG term keeping trophy BG always present in the pond. This is the challenge for all pond owners that initially do manage to grow big fish only in early years of the pond’s long term history.

Listen several times to the link to Bob Lusk’s Growing Giant Bluegill. Listen often until you can recite from memory all the strategies or fundamentals Bob provides for growing big BG. Then be diligent for consistently implementing all those fundamentals.
Bob Lusk on Growing Giant Bluegill



1. Overcrowded bass reduce BG’s ability to produce BG overcrowding of too many small fish. In addition to numerous bass, you can also manually rake over the nests during the active spawning season. Do your best to maintain numerous small bass. Harvest all bass larger than 13”. There will always be a few bass present bigger than 14”-15” that anglers do not catch. LMB become hook smart and avoid capture. Preserve most of your bass that are less than 13”.

When mid size BG become abundant and larger than what the 13” bass readily eat, you can use fish traps such as the Z Trap to remove various sizes of young of year (YOY), and/or 1-2 yr old BG that are 4” to 6” long. The large traps can catch 7”-8” BG.

You want to maintain abundant smaller bass to eat lots of small BG to keep the numbers of small BG at low density. Two 8” to 10” long bass will eat more numbers of the small 1”-2” BG compared to two larger 14”-15” bass who usually eat fewer numbers of those larger 3”-4” BG per year than do the 8”-10” bass. The smallest BG are the ones that need most to be removed when the goal is growing big BG. Too many BG over eat the small foods and do not allow all BG to get their bellies full daily. Daily full BG bellies are what grows big BG. As Condello below says , Just feeding pellets does not truly create a trophy BG fishery. Growing trophy BG takes a WELL ROUNDED diet of natural foods supplemented with high quality pellets. Lusk and Condello emphasize this in their discussions. Good forms of habitat are important for producing natural foods. Some types of artificial habitats are better at producing natural foods. See more on this later.

2. It helps to harvest or remove the larger BG that are the FEMALES. Learn how to recognize male and female BG. Fewer female BG result in fewer new hatchling BG. BG population control and management are very important. Removing female BG is an important key part of growing really big bluegill in smaller ponds. Removing females helps reduce BG overcrowding. Fewer females results in fewer eggs laid.

Fewer BG in the pond as mostly males allows each of them to get more natural foods to grow better. Predominant big male BG tend to suppress the young male BG from maturing and entering the spawning activities game plan. Thus these young immature males will mature later at a larger size as they continue growing fast IF they get plenty of food and are not too crowded.
Males vs Females
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=422568

Proper BG Harvest topic
https://www.pondboss.com/news/moderators-corner/bluegill-harvest-guidelines

3. Right kind of environment with habitat.
Bob Lusk and Bruce Condello on Growing Giant Bluegill
Article
https://www.pondboss.com/news/inside-pond-boss/growing-giant-bluegills

Take good notes from their discussions above and below for good points on culling and growing big BG:

The Following is a Facebook video with excellent topics for Growing Big BG Bob and Bruce talk about using Tiger-musky to thin out medium size 5”- 7” long BG. Instead of musky, using one or two Z traps in a small pond can be very helpful when you need to remove excess selected medium sizes of BG that are too big for the small bass patrol to eliminate. Proper harvest and removal is a key part of growing all trophy fish.







Keeping BG density lower, especially those medium sizes, opens the carrying capacity for remaining fish and increases the chances of growing really big BG.
Bob and Bruce Condello Video Grow Big Bluegill



4. Understand BG plasticity for implementing selective harvest of the poor performers. Plasticity involves understanding that NOT all fish of the same specie and year class, in this case BG, have the same growth potential. It is natural for some to grow faster and larger than their siblings. Learn when and know what ones to remove for best growth of remaining fish. Use selective harvest. Not all BG have the potential to grow to huge sizes. Preserve the biggest fattest ones which are usually the males. Remember this is only a ¼ ac pond and it is not limitless in the numbers and pounds of fish that it can support or grow. Thus numbers have to be carefully managed toward fewer individuals to maintain trophy class BG. Too many competitors reduces the growth potential of the best fish and stresses the entire fishery.


5. Proper High Quality Foods using the Right Brand Name. Regularly provide the right amount and sizes of pellets as supplemental food or the number of fish present. Feed appropriate amounts year round if they will eat. It is not good for growing big fish for them to lose weight during winter if they are willing to eat good food. Feed enough food for BG to maintain weight during winter. Do not over feed. Optimal fish food has been especially developed to have the high protein, high digestibility and least amount of manure waste products to grow big BG fast. Optimal first designed their fish food formula for indoor aquaculture where manure waste needs to be kept to a minimum.
Purina also has a good multi-size high protein pellet for BG. Use the best food for optimum protein digestibility, the best growth rates, and to reduce amount of fish manure waste that is very important for the next item #6 – water quality. Again do good homework and do not just by the most economical or most convenient brand of fish food. You fish grow best on the best foods.

6.. Have constant good water quality that grows more natural foods and healthier fish with fewer chances of fish kills due to an over productive and out of balance system. Over abundant fish in several ways reduces water quality. Fewer fish promotes better water quality for the long term health of the fishery and the pond ecosystem.

7. Understand pond carrying capacity. Here I use carrying capacity to mean the animal load a system can support. This is the amount of numbers and pounds of healthy BG can be grown in just 0.25 acre. Fish crowding causes the fish to have behavioral and physical problems that result is slowed growth.
Manage the numbers. The BG numbers as big sized individuals are not going to be very many in a small pond due to the LIMITS of natural carrying capacity based on pond size and volume.

My general rule is the fewer of fish there are in the pond the BIGGER the average sizes will be. It is all due to their TOTAL WEIGHT per acre and not just their numbers per acre. Bigger fish weigh more so the increased weights of these larger fish will more quickly fill the carrying capacity. You can’t grow giant BG when there are too many of them in the pond. Plan to reduce the number of total fish as the largest ones grow bigger filling the carrying capacity. Fewer BG per acre will grow bigger faster – It’s Nature’s Law.

Also as carrying capacity is increased above the normal or natural level due to too many fish and too much added feeding in a pond's volume the water quality proportionally decreases.

Regularly reducing excess numbers of the proper sizes of fish (selective removal) opens carrying capacity for added growth of remaining fish.

Natural carrying capacity is largely based on pond alkalinity. The higher the alkalinity the more it has the ability to grow more natural planktonic foods and fish. Thus low alkalinity water grows fewer pounds of fish. Knowing your alkalinity helps determine carrying capacity. When or once the alkalinity is established in a new pond then the usable fertility of nutrients present causes or stimulates the growth at the bottom of the food chain. Fish poundage then responds to the amount of increased low level foods that grow and then move or cascade upward as bigger organisms in the food web. This abundance of natural foods at several levels allows fish to grow fast providing there are not too many fish present. You don’t want too many hogs feeding at the trough or some or many won’t get enough to eat to grow well.

Normally in ponds with good alkalinity the carrying capacity of the panfish can often range from 200 to 300 lbs per acre based on good high alkalinity (60-180), rgw nutrient concentration and water clarity / sunlight. This carrying capacity in ¼ ac becomes 50 to 70 lbs of total panfish sizes. Not a lot in a small pond. Water clarity limits the depth of plant growth. Plant growth can be important in that it provides underwater leaf and stem surfaces for producing invertebrate fish foods.

When one adds fish food and or fertilizer the TOTAL carrying capacity of all species of fish in the pond can be increased to usually around 400 to 600 lbs per ac. A fish poundage of over 500lbs/ac is too high IMO for having “happy water” and a year round healthy water pond. Too much fish crowding causes the fish to have behavioral, physical and later health problems especially for the oldest biggest fish that are the trophy sizes. Old fish often get weaker and less tolerant as they age out.

Special high fertility conditions can produce 1000+ lbs of fish per acre that is dangerously high and results as a constant threat of fish kills due to frequent oxygen shortages.

Natural carrying capacity of the DeerTexas pond will I think be based mostly on the water alkalinity. Fish pellets adds some fish poundage above the natural poundage of foods and increases the chances of oxygen shortages. Pay attention in the Lusk-Condello video in #3 above in the link of how Bruce Condello deals with managing his ponds with the higher fish poundage.

Be very watchful and diligent as the pond ages. Very often the 1st stocking of fish grows to the biggest sizes. BG live to around 6 o 8 years. When those big fish die of old age, the subsequent generations composing the pond’s carrying capacity are usually overcrowded, more stressed and not growing as well as they used to in the early days of a newish pond. Then the overall growth to top end sizes declines, especially for the biggest panfish. All this is mainly because of overcrowding and the pond is at or above it’s carrying capacity. Proper annual fish monitoring and removal of size groups that are too abundant are key items to the long term maintaining of trophy class fish. Management, management, management.

Watch and learn about what Sarah Parvin and Americal Sportfish are doing to grow trophy CNBG. Keep in mind she has 5 acres of water not a small 0.25 ac.
Sarah Parvin at SlabLab is trying to grow the next new record size BG.


At 7:20 sarah talks about the important function of bass with SELECTIVE HARVEST to keep the population of BG to a MINIMUM for growing trophy BG. American Sportfish also comes in regularly to SlabLab to remove unnecessary BG (lowering capacity) to keep the largest ones growing. Amer.Sportfish helps with proper harvest and population control as key importance to keep the biggest ones growing toward that trophy size. Fish crowding slows growth of BG. Too many fish causes growth stressors for the whole pond. Without good proper harvest of the mid sizes of BG,,,, the largest ones do not grow or they grow poorly.

See the following good management summary from a PBForum member and be careful about having good water quality. Too much fertility causes water quality problems. Manage the nutrients for the best year round water quality.

“Fertilizing the pond can have great rewards, but it carries great risks. Many of the risk factors are out of our hands. The member says I will be using little to no fertilizer, little bloom, fewer fish per acre, and not so many worries about weather and associated fish kills. I will have ~30% shallows and weed beds. Not pristine but great for growing minnows and aquatic live fish foods including grass shrimp.”


Sarah Parvin at the Slab Lab for growing big BG.
She Shows a Big CNBG and talks briefly about carrying capacity
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rRoa8JoXjXc

Sarah, Slabs And Science




32 oz BG at SlabLab
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/j2Vxdg5QR0E

Sarah’s Feeding Program


At 7:20 sarah talks about the important function of bass to keep the population of BG to a MINIMUM for growing those trophy BG. American Sportfish also comes in regularly to remove BG to keep the largest one growing. Proper harvest is key to keep the biggest ones growing toward trophy size. Without good harvest of mid sizes the largest ones do not grow or grow poorly.

Sarah explains why some good habitat is important for growing giant BG in the SlabLab.


Knowledge and diligent management will grow the biggest BG.

IMO Commentary: Aeration will not stop nor suppress plant/algae growth. Aeration does help improve and maintain good water quality that is essential for a high quality fishery. If the pond accumulates fewer nutrients each day or year this reduces excessive plant growth. Excess plant growth is due to excess nutrients. Killing the over abundant plants/algae just recycles the nutrients in the dead plants to restart more growth because the fertilizers are still in the pond. Fertilizers and nutrients make plants grow more - same as with plants in the garden. Removing nutrients from the pond in any form reduces the amount of plant growth. Adding nutrients adds plant growth.

IMO for growing big BG - leave out the channel catfish. IMO they have little benefit for growing big BG. The trophy BG growers do not say CC improves growing big BG. CC are pellet hogs and compete heavily with BG for fish pellets. Adding CC adds fish biomass weight to the pond’s carrying capacity. Use the pellets to grow big BG not catfish.

I am not sure that adding fatheads will help very much for growing giant BG. Sarah and other Big BG pros including Bob Lusk and Bruce Condello in their management discussions do not say or include that adding FHM are important for growing trophy BG. Instead of adding FHM, I would add structures that are promoted to produce attached growth called periphyton that increases invertebrates. These I think will be more beneficial for growing and feeding the stocked fingerlings and adult BG compared to the benefit of FHM for BG. Small fish thrive and flourish when invertebrate foods are abundant. When doing homework for food promoting structures look at Ugly Tree fish habitat and similar types that are proven winners as fish habitat. You don’t want just fish attractors you want habitat with lots of small surfaces that imitate the leaflets on underwater vegetation where thousands of invertebrates call home.

IMO - Plan and stock the LMB BEFORE the BG spawn the first time. You really don’t want your fingerling bass eating FHminnows. You want the bass eating lots of the hatchling and young of year (YOY) BG and not eating FH minnows instead of eating the small overabundant hatchling BG. When the LMB are eating FHM or things other than BG this is counterproductive to growing trophy BG. When the BG grow big and are able to or decide to eat some fish fry, I want them eating BG fry not fathead minnow fry. I do not see the benefit of adding FHM for producing giant BG. Others may disagree but then please provide your explanation.

Look for my Private Message for an optional plan to grow trophy class BG in a small pond.

What he said.

Cody Note: Thank you Mr. Theo for the complement. Growing fish to trophy sizes is not easy.

Ditto. I bet it took Bill all of 5 minutes to type that out too.

Bill Cody, THANK YOU for that informative reply!! I’m certain that response, which I will reread again and again, will help me avoid many pitfalls and mistakes in the coming years. I respect the effort that took and I’m very grateful!! 👍🏻🙂

Boondoggle, big thanks to you, too! Heeding your advice!

I so glad I found this place. And y’all. A priceless wealth of info. 🙌🏻

These guys have helped me many times too. Several of the members around here have saved my bacon multiple times on making a mistake that I would have to correct later. Tons of info in various posts and sometimes from unexpected places. Pick up what you can, where you can and pay it forward to the next guy.

Good luck on the journey of pond management. I hope you get those BG's in and growing large enough to share some pics for us to follow along.