Essup,

I am considering a few possible fishery routes for the pond.

Idea #1 - Not chase the ph with ag lime, and let the pond stay acidic and see if some acid tolerant fish will thrive. So far, I think my bull minnows, fathead minnows, and mosquito fish have been ok. There is a place near me that sells pumpkin seed sunfish specifically for water bodies that have low ph. Then, I’d like to have a small amount of larger predators. I would start with LMB, but if they don’t thrive, I would then try our local chain pickerel. (I wish our northern snakehead were legal because they’d probably thrive).

Idea #2 - Not chase the ph with ag lime, and let the pond be acidic and add some yellow perch as well as my collection of minnows. Our local fish farm breeds yellow perch and our local YP supposedly do well in acidic conditions. I wouldn’t worry about the YP getting stunted as long as they were healthy. They would just replace the usual bluegill.

Idea #3 - Ag lime the pond regularly. If I get a suitable neutral ph, I’d love to have minnow, bluegill, and a small number of hybrid striped bass. If the hybrid striped bass can’t survive the hot summer, then add a few big large mouth bass.

Idea #4 - Minnow and hybrid bluegill for more size. Then add just a few bass incase any wild bluegill sneak in and spawn. Can those hybrid bluegill handle low ph or do they need the ph closer to neutral?