Timing of fish stocking can be important. Best answers to you will be dependent on your goals for the fishery. Primarily big class panfish; general bass and CNBG fishing in a good generalized fishing pond, high catch rates with regular sized bluegill and bass mostly 2 lb to 4lb with a few 5lb sizes OR are you wanting primarily trophy class bass of 6lb-10lb. . Be informed it is very difficult to have together trophy CNBG and trophy bass mostly 6lbs to 8lbs. Different types of management are needed for having mainly each of trophy big panfish and trophy bass. Trophy CNBG need lots of smaller 1lb to 3 lb bass and trophy bass need lots of small panfish to properly feed the lower numbers of oversized bass. Note that trophy bass means you can't grow very many per acre and bass catch rates are low per hour of fishing due to only a few exist per acre.
Along with the mosquito fish you can also now stock some fathead minnows to help enhance the small fish forages. If the pond were mine I would allow the pond to get full. While this is happening Nature is producing an abundance of invertebrate foods to enhance the food chain. Too early of stocking when pond is murky due to high mud silt turbidity this suppresses the light limitation for production of the important bottom of the food chain - primarily phytoplankton and zooplankton that are necessary for fast fish grow of the stocker sportfish.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 04/04/25 11:00 AM.
