I'd go BG and FHM at the same time. Sure the BG will pick some of them off as they grow, but if you aren't planning to use pellet feeding you will want some food for the BG's in there. Without the use of supplemental feeding the pond will likely produce smaller numbers of fish in both BG and LMB. One of the other guys might have better numbers but lets try to work it two ways.

First if a standard 1 acre pond stocking is 50-100 LMB per acre then a 1/8 acre pond would be stocking 6-12 LMB. Forage stocking density of 10:1 at a minimum would 60-120 BG. I wonder if you could do something like 70 BG and 20ish RES along with a couple of pounds of FHM as an initial stocking.

Working those numbers backwards 90 BG/RES would put you at 9LMB on a 10:1.

If you stocked say 6LMB they would have an over abundance of food and would grow quicker/heavier. If you stocked 12 LMB they may do well in the beginning but overall as the pond matured they would likely be leaner. I have been amazed at the early growth of LMB. Caught a few LMB out of our new pond this year to check on some lengths and weights. JPS ran a little data on it and my 2" stocked grew to 8.1" LMB that weighted .36 lbs had consumed nearly .5 lbs from May 31 - Aug 24. Think of the number of little minnows, and bugs that guy had to eat and then multiply that times the number of fish in the pond.

The use of food and a feeder will greatly improve the BG size and population and likely indirectly help your LMB as well. As to harvesting, once the fish start to spawn they will fill out the rest of the water. Your initial numbers are just to get them started. For the FHM restocking, you absolutely can do it, but think of what the gain is to the LMB. They will eat 10lbs of forage to gain 1lb. Those will be some expensive and short lived snacks in the pond. Say $15/lb on FHM vs a bag of quality food at $60-70 for 40-50lbs. Much bigger bang for your buck on a bag of quality food that you could hand throw and get to see your fish come up to eat.

Welcome to Pond Boss and good luck on your new pond build!


1.5acre LMB, YP, BG, RES, GSH, Seasonal Tilapia
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