Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Just Dug a 4 Acre Pond, Send Help!

Hi guys, so we’ve just dug a 4 acre pond in Southwestern Ontario. It’s still filling but about 1/3 of it will be 25-35 feet deep, 1/3 10-15’ and the last 1/3rd will be about 8’ with some shallower flat areas and trenches mixed throughout. We’ve got a ton of rocks piled throughout different depths giving some good structure and probably 50’x300’ of washed sand which is basically a super fine gravel placed from shore down to about 7-8’ deep in the water. I’ve got a few different questions as it would be awesome not to screw it all up at this point.

First the fish mix: I would really like Yellow Perch as they seem relatively self sustaining and would hopefully be the kind of thing we could have a few big fish fries a year without hurting anything too badly. I’ve also always been a big trout guy, would some Rainbow and Speckles do okay with the Perch? I was originally hoping to do Crappie as well but as I’ve done more reading I don’t think I have enough water, is that right? As far as feeder fish go what would you do? I've seen ponds with Creek chub overrunning them and definitely don't want to get into that. Are there any sunfish that stay small enough to be feeder fish their entire lives? I’ve already put some crayfish in to give them a head start on the big fish, what (If any) fish could I put in this year and how long should I wait to add the Perch and Trout for instance? Currently the deepest areas of the pond are 15-16’ deep with lots way shallower. The whole thing will definitely be full in the Spring.

As for fish habitat is there anything I should do besides all the rock stacks we made? I understand that Trout spawn in something pretty similar to the washed sand but with running water, do you think I’d have any hope of getting them to spawn in the pond if I placed a pump say 30’ down and used it to pump cold water through the sand to simulate a spring coming through?

Any other ideas that I should do now but may not have thought of? Thanks in advance for any input, this seems like one of those things where preventing future problems is a lot easier than fixing them.

A lot of this stuff is regional and I know nothing about Canadian waters. Welcome to Pond Boss.

I don't know much about your region either but I am curious what your local fish farms offer in the way of forage fish (minnows and shiners). It seems as though each species has its own spawning habitat and if you have some time while the pond is still filling it's a great time to try to add it in.

Many of the posts I've seen about stock also indicate that you want your forage fish to get a good head start on your predator fish so they have ample time to spawn/recruit.

YP are listed as both predator and prey species depending on their use in the pond. They are also one of the earliest spawning fish of the year.

If it were me in your shoes I'd be looking at the forage first (now or next spring). Get it established and look to stock predators perhaps in the fall of 2026 or Spring of 2027.

Welcome to PondBoss!

Thanks for the replies so far!

That totally makes sense focusing on the forage fish and their spawning first. I think all the local(ish) fish farms seem to have are silver shiners and Fathead Minnows for forage fish. Most don't seem to sell any forage fish whatsoever though. I just have no concept of how much feed those forage fish might need and don't want to stunt the whole environment by dumping them into a desert. As far as their preferred environment goes I have no problem spending some money building it now if it'll make things better later. Do you think stocking this early in the process with the forage fish will stunt things?

Thanks

I’m still pretty new to this. Others may have better or differing opinions. If your region still has adequate water spawning temps, you BoW is 1/3 - 1/2 full it won’t hurt anything to add them in.

If the spawning window has passed wait until spring to capitalize on spawning they don’t age out and die over the winter.

Looks like we should have warm water temps for at least a few weeks yet so I've got some FHM coming. Will be neat to see something swimming around in there in any case. Was thinking of adding a few hundred BG, PS and GS in the Spring, do you think there's any danger of them taking over in a pond that's goal is to catch predominately Yellow Perch and various trout in the end? I would tend to think the trout will control them to a degree?

Might check with someone in your area about the BG or perhaps one of the more experienced fellas here will chime in. For sure they will outgrow the gape of YP and with no predation on them at that point could take over the pond. I don't have enough experience to make a recommendation other than seek a more experienced person in your region.

I am in N.Y, the other side of the lake, so our climate is similar. You definitely get colder in the winter as you don’t often get the moderating influence of the lakes.

If I were you, fathead minnows first ASAP. You won’t need to feed them as they will find plenty of what they love naturally. With some patience, you will have huge amounts of fatheads by late summer next year which will set the stage for regular stocking of game fish. I put in the FHM before the pond was even 1/4 full.

A type of sunfish that stays in forage range for larger predators is the pumpkinseed sunfish. They also multiply fast, and it is possible you can stock them early summer or spring next year assuming you stock FHM this fall to let them get a leg up first. They are a ton of fun to watch, and will take to hand feeding easily.

Otherwise for a top predator fish, I would initially start with yellow perch in the early fall next year, as they are great for controlling snails and leeches. Perhaps the following spring, choose a fish that is unlikely to spawn in ponds, like walleye. I am suggesting this as new ponds tend to have low fertility. Ponds need to establish for a few years and accumulate nutrients before putting in fish that will multiply and quickly strip the forage base, leaving you with the need to manually balance the pond with excessive fishing.

I went too fast and wound up with pencils and credit cards with eyeballs. Walleye don’t take to feed well, and black crappie was an ill advised mistake, which also don’t take to feed well. These along with yellow perch stripped my large forage base clean in a month as the forage just wasn’t able to thrive and keep up.

Our seasons are shorter up here than down south where most members on these forums reside, so my advice is more from cold water pond observations and some advice from here. It takes longer for our ponds to “mature”. There is a lot of “it depends” here, and there are far better experts here than this electrical engineer, so there may be contradictory advice. Listen to others with more weight than me,

The good news is you can likely have cold water fish like various trout, as you have depth and size for refuge during the hotter month(s). For example, this year in the Finger Lakes, it got too hot this summer and I would have lost my brook trout if I had stocked some. I tried LMB for the first time in my 10+ year old pond instead, and they love it.

Fatheads are going in on Monday so we should be good on that front. I definitely hear you on the not rushing it, I got really excited with a smaller pond I dug years ago and threw in 1100 brook trout 1-1.5" long when it was maybe 1/3 full and a year later they looked like those skeletal African cattle trying to cross the river and not get eaten by a crocodile in the documentaries. I figure I set myself back a couple years that time and I definitely don't want the same to happen...

For the Yellow Perch, next fall when I stock them what size would you do? Ideally I'd like for them to spawn Spring of 2027 unless that's bad for some reason. If I went with say predominately 6" do you think there's any harm in throwing in say 200 8-10" at the same time so there are some big ones to catch the next Summer?

As far as big predator fish, I heard Walleye won't spawn in a pond so might make a good control fish eventually but I do plan on building a couple spawning boxes to try and get Speckled Trout to spawn in it, would the Walleye use those too and overpopulate? Will big Rainbow or Speckled trout eat a full sized Bluegill? Thanks again for the help, I just don't want to do anything disastrous.

If you want to just have a YP/Trout pond, then I would NOT add any panfish. BG/PS will need a bass species to keep them under control unless you can find Saugeye to stock. FHM spawn on the underside of things, so a lot of 12" rip rap along the edges down to 36" depth, stacks of pallets in shallow water (<36" to 6" of surface), or other material in shallow water that they can spawn on the underside of. YP drape their egg skeins over things, so boderate thickness brush piles with the tops of them within 24"-48", maybe 60" of the surface is needed by them to pull off a good successful spawn.

I'd make sure that the Fatheads are from a farm, not wild caught fish. If wild caught fish, sort them VERY, VERY carefully to ensure that there are no other fish in there with them like bullheads, etc. You could use a small aquarium net, dip out 1/4 net full, inspect closely, then release them into the pond if wild caught fish. Anything that doesn't look like a FHM, toss on the bank far enough that it can't flop back into the water.

It's OK to add FHM now because they may not be available at ice out in the Spring.

To have YP reproduce in the Spring, I'd stock 6"-8" in mid summer 2026 or the 8"-10" like you said. WE target more fusiform fish like YP, Saugeye target more round shaped fish like panfish.

To be honest I had never heard of a Saugeye before you mentioned it, that’s super valuable information, thanks!

Am I wrong to think if I stock bass that the YP populations would suffer over the coming years? Don’t get me wrong I like catching bass, they’re just not the greatest to eat and get wormy early in the year. I hear one bass can lay 4000 eggs and they can get 6” long fast at which point you have a ton of bass

The FHM are from a hatchery so should be good that way but thanks for mentioning.

I'm no expert on any of this but I do have a cool water pond with some of the species you are hoping to raise.
#1. If you have some feed and can get the FHM to eat, you may really enjoy feeding them. Many of us get a kick out of hand feeding our fish; some even enjoy the feeding more than the catching.
#2. Rainbow and tiger trout ( a hybrid of brown and brook) eat plenty of sunfish in my pond. They probably eat plenty of my YP, too. The 18" to 24" trout grab 5", 6", 7" BG carcasses that I've removed the fillets from. They are probably eating the live fish, too.
#3. Rather than LMB, you might be advised to add SMB , particularly if your panfish are YP and not sunfish species. LMB generally need BG as forage; the BG generally need LMB to keep the surplus population down. SMB and YP play well together. PS would be hard for me to resist though. I imagine I'd simply take on the role of primary predator of the PS if their population was getting too high.
Keep posting; your pond will be so very different from the typical USA bass and bluegill BOW and for many of us, very interesting to follow.

Your pond with 1/3 at 25-30 ft deep should have enough depth to prevent any winter kill due to deep snow cover. With your bottom structural configuration you should be okay. Annual tree leaf organic inputs would be the danger of oxygen losses in the future of promoting winter fish kills in the long term 10-25+ years. If the pond maintains clear water of 6-10ft you should not need any type of aeration and still maintain some cool oxygenated water layer for summer survival of trout. Low water clarity of 3ft to 4ft could cause loss of oxygen and no DO production in the cool deep water layer of 8-10 ft. during August.

I agree with esshup use no sunfish types. If you want to ruin the fishery add crappie. I somewhat disagree that larger trout are eating lots of live larger sunfish. Trout eating fish offal, okay wth that,,, but IMO not very many live 4"-5" sunfish are eaten unless soft rayed fish are not common. . Start checking the gut contents of your larger harvested trout and report back with what you discover. Your trout IMO will not eat very many spiney fin fish for their total annual diet. For a good trout fishery you will need to feed the trout pellets plus during cold temps,,,, have at all times various types of soft rayed fish available plus invertebrates living in good habitats. This means IMO a strong harvest of those minnow eating fish that are present. Proper harvest is critically important to manage the proper balance of forages and predators. Protect and maintain minows for the winter cold water trout diets. IMO trout and perch have widely different natural habtat requirements thus this fish combination is more difficult to manage them for them both producing a high quaiity fishery of both species compared to each specie grown separately. IMO trout will definately by themselves NOT control strong recruitment ability of YP.

If you want perch (YP) they will thrive best if you stock PELLET trained YP. Use trout food. This keeps them growing well to big sizes. Done correctly you should easily grow some 13"-14" YP. Pellet eating YP will grow fast to 10"-12" (3yr) and will produce enough numbers to allow a good harvest of YP each year - maybe 30-50 lbs per acre per year for up to 130 - 180 lbs per year (8"-13") when in 4 acres with good management.

No pellets - then plan 5 yrs to grow some to 10"+ YP and a harvest of maybe 40 - 50 total harvest pounds per year (8"-11") from 4 acres. However annual fish harvest will strongly depend on average annual water clarity. My magazine articles for YP harvest in non-pellet fed clear water ponds with clarity of 7ft-10ft would be 20 - 30 lbs of YP per acre/yr. A 12" well fed YP weighs 1 lb. The clearer the water the lower the allowable fish harvest pounds per acre each year. Clear water 7ft-10ft does not grow as much fish foods per acre as water 3ft of clarity.

For YP stocking and an early YP spawn in 2026 stock mainly 5"-7" and some 3%-10%) 8"-10".

If I was stocking YP in Ontario,, I would also be stocking smallmouth bass(SMB) but not largemouth, unless the pond has a significant submerged weed community. YP can thrive in a weedy pond with LMB. Smallies are a natural predator of YP and the two pair well together and are common species in Ontario lakes especially more northern lakes. IMO Trout will eat YP as a last resort. SMB will be your predatory controller of the YPs tendency to overpopulate. If you have decent SMB spawning habitat then you will also need to harvest enough SMB as maybe 10-20 per acre/yr as 6"-10" to keep them from overpopulating and over eating your minnow and crayfish forages. That will all depend on the SMB recruitment per year which can be notable in the right habitat conditions. I help with a 1 ac clear water pond that has a sand composition small beach, all rocky shoreline and pellet fed SMB recritiment has so far been strong each year. I have eaten Ontario SMB and they have a better taste than LMB.

You being in SW Ontario, you will not be able to locate, buy, and stock saugeye .

Walleye (WE) when adults as 14"+ would be an option to help eat lots of large minnows and small YP, and small SMB. Walleye would be IMO a bonus fish (5-10/ac) for your pond project to help control small YP. From pond experiences of WE in ponds do not plan on them growing larger than 4lb - 23" maybe larger of 5lb unless you are very fortunate. Pond grown WE for some reason do not grow the same way as lake run walleye. If SMB and YP over populate you might need to add more WE or one pike as a bonus fish per acre but as pike get 28+" they will eat stocker trout, 8"+ YP and some SMB. Pros and cons.

If it were my Ontario pond I would do my best to be contacting some local and even some more remote bait dealers who capture their own minnow - shiner type baits from lakes, rivers or streams. FHM will not survive and thrive any form of decent predator presence. I have seen YP eliminate FHM from ponds. You would be looking for in this order: bluntnose minnows, spotfin shiners, redbelly dace, spottail shiners, and depending on what predators that you chose to MAYBE later adding some golden shiners after the other minnow types are spawning and are recruiting new year classes, providing good numbers of forage fish are present per year. Find out what minnow species are available at bait dealers and I can advise as to their usefulness in pond habitats. You are looking for minnows/shiners that are pond spawners. Emerald shiners will not spawn in most all ponds. I am working an PBoss article about that.

Tons of great information here, thanks! So you think on the aeration front maybe just buy a DO meter and monitor occasionally during the warm months as the years go by and add an aerator if/when it becomes necessary?

I hear you loud and clear on the Crappie, scratch that idea. Interesting point about having no predator for the adult Sunfish, would you have an estimate of how many might have to be removed by fishing per year to keep control of them? What about Northern Sunfish? The average adult length is only 3", would they add something to the forage base? The ones that do get to 4-5" could presumably be relocated to shore manually?

I don't think finding Pellet trained YP will be an issue, there seem to be a lot of people growing them. Thankyou for the stocking rates and sizes on those, very helpful.

Would I be wrong to let the YP and Trout establish for a while and then add the SMB in a few years if it starts to seem like the YP are taking over? Or the same but add say 20 Walleye?

I'm planning on building a couple 4x8 spawning boxes to see if I can get the brook trout to spawn, any danger of the Walleye using those and exploding in population if I was to stock some?

Thankyou for the heads up on the FHM, I found a guy that has bluntnose minnows, red bellied dace and finescale dace.

On a somewhat related note, I was at a local lake yesterday and was looking at a bunch of black sandshell mussels, would those be a net positive or negative to the pond ecosystem? I associate mussels with good water quality but I don't really know anything.

Thanks a bunch!

I have a customer that grows large Bluegills in his 4 acre pond. He has some Walleye, Smallmouth Bass and Hybrid Striped Bass. He harvests around 300 to 400 bluegill per acre per year. That does not include the Yellow Perch that he harvests, nor the Hybrid Crappie. He has a reproducing population of Golden Shiners in his pond, but we are always mindful of the Hybrid Crappie population. It has to be monitored carefully to prevent over population.

Wow, that’s a lot of bluegill…. Is there a decent way to harvest that many big ones efficiently like a version of a minnow trap with the grates a certain diameter or something to let all the little ones swim back through? Sounds like a lot of fishing for removal.

It IS a lot of fishing. Now remember that is with the predators in the pond, Without the predators in the pond he'd have to harvest considerably more.

Nothing on the market like you describe that I know of.

Your project sounds like a lot of fun, with a lot of opportunities for us (and you) to learn along the way. If you don't have it already, there is a prior issue of PB Magazine that shows how to make the brook trout spawning box that you referenced. It is available from the PB Headquarters for a modest fee and is certainly worth the read.

I had the same question you have about the possibility of WE using it. This could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on the goals of having WE to begin with. I'm curious to know if any of the experts here have an opinion on the topic.

Best of luck with your project. Please continue to share here so we can all learn as you go.

I did find the issue about the spawning box, will definitely give that a try. Yeah, WE sound like a great control fish once things are established as long as they don't spawn. If they do then 4 acres would seem pretty small really fast.