Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose New Genetics

It’s time for me to add new genetics to my 2.5 acre pond. It was originally stocked with F1s. I always hear that if you move a mature bass (5-10 lb bass for example) from another pond/lake that they will never do well in your body of water because they were accustomed to their previous habitat. Is this actually true? what if the fish is only 3-4 years old at time of moving? It sure would be nice to buy some time if I could get my hands on some mature females instead of 8”-10” females.

Following...We have a 54 acre lake that has stunted LMB. My opinion, flawed genetics, not overcrowding...We have stocked 19,000 CNBG since 2018, I'm ready to try stocking some pure Northerns.

Not sure Sam. I don’t know of anybody who has tried and actually followed up on it. Or they didn’t post the known results here.

Lusk says don’t do it so I haven’t. But, I did catch some mature bluegills from a pond and put them in a spring fed creek and they did ok.

Stunting is a product of not enough food to eat. The only time I have encountered stunting that was not the result of insufficient food (i.e. genetics) is where the stocker fish came from a lake that had many generations of stunted fish so the offspring were adapted/genetics toward small size. That is rare IMO.

On the OP's question - my suggestion is get 10-12 inch good quality LMB from a known source and stock them this fall. They will reproduce next spring. If the current fish have been in the pond for 10 yrs or less you likely don't have genetic problems. What makes you believe that genetics are the issue?

Thank you for the reply. I actually think genetics are not an issue in my pond. It was stocked originally with great genetic fish 8 years ago. I just know that a controlled environment like a pond, inbreeding can become an issue so I want to get ahead of it. And I figure if I can get my hands on the best of the best genetic females, I’d be foolish not to. I’m very aggressive at culling. I don’t care about catch rates. I just simply want to know I have giants in my pond. That will make me go fishing more than having high catch rates will. Hypothetically, is stocking a 10 lb female better than stocking five to ten fingerlings that are 8”-10”???

I would want the 1 lb offspring from the 10 lb fish as they have a better chance of doing well in your pond. Moving large fish is generally not a good idea unless you plan to put her in just before the spawn and remove her after the fry swim-up.