Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Bucket stocking rates for 9 acre lake

I got permission from a neighbor to stock his 9 acre borrow pit(they excavated dirt here along the highway when they added more lanes back in the 60s I believe). I’ll give a little background on the lake and my plan, and I’d love to hear some advice from some experienced pond managers.

It’s 9 acres and perfectly rectangular. Located in a pasture and around 8-11 feet deep all across. Extremely turbid. Some trees along the bank have tipped in over the years as the ground eroded out from under them. I have fished it a couple times this winter, and the only fish I have marked on the livescope were extremely small <3”. I also left some tipups out there for a couple days with various sized baits and never got a bite. I haven’t managed to catch anything in minnow traps, but I did identify a dead fathead minnow that I chipped out of the ice. I’m pretty sure it’s not a carp fingerling like I feared! So as far as I know , there are only forage fish right now. The owner knows nothing about fishing, but said that over a decade ago someone told him they caught northern out of it. My guess is that it winterkilled due to low water levels during a drought. This could happen again in the future.

My plan is to put my money towards yellow perch, since they’d have a better chance making it through a low water event (is this true?). We have a lot of good boom and bust shallow perch sloughs around here. With the bluegill, I’m willing to start with lower numbers and wait for natural reproduction to take off before forking out the money for a bass and/or walleye stocking. With this size of a pond, even lower ends of stocking recommendations would be quite expensive for a lake that could winterkill at any time.

Last night I successfully transferred around 30 perch(4-5”) and 30 bluegill (5-6”) from a neighbors gravel pit. My plan is to do this a couple more times this winter. Then this spring I plan to buy another 1000 3-4” yellow perch from a local hatchery. Should I supplement the bluegill as well by buying some 2-3” or 3-4” this spring? I would prefer to spend the money on more perch if I can confidently expect 100 bluegill to find each other and successfully spawn in such a large pond. My assumption is that perch would do better in a low oxygen event, and also that bluegill are more prolific spawners and could “catch up” faster from a low stocking rate.

As you are stocking somewhat lower numbers of fish, and then relying on their respective spawning, I would spend some time on ensuring you have good spawning areas and structures for the Yellow Perch and Bluegill.

I am a little worried that it is extremely turbid.

Is it a groundwater pond, or filled from surface water runoff?

One cause of turbid water is a bunch of trash (rough) fish, such as carp, buffalo, some suckers, drum, or even bullheads for some people. They are constantly stirring the bottom of the pond searching for food. The turbid water generally harms the food chain for the desirable fish that most people want in their ponds.

The other scenario is suspended clay. Here is a link to the importance of performing the "jar test".


Jar Test - Pond Boss Thread

If that is your problem, then scroll down in that thread to esshup's post where he describes how to treat for suspended clay.


No matter what fish stocking plan you are implementing, improving your water quality will yield better results.


I would also get a few pounds of fathead minnows to stock before your yellow perch and BG are well established. The FHMs should multiply like crazy, and then there will be lots of food as your YP and BG populations begin to expand.

Are the banks of the borrow pit very steep? I definitely agree with Sunil about providing some good spawning habitat. If the banks are mostly steep, then you could make some improved BG spawning habitat in the flatter areas. I do not have YP, but I believe our northern members put in some cut branches on their banks after ice out so the perch have good habitat to drape their eggs.

Have fun on your new pond project. If it goes well, I suspect you may even be able to turn the owner into a "fishing" guy!

Before you stock more fish, what is the fishery goal for the pond? Research what specific spawning habitat each species needs that you want to stock. Yellow Perch and Bluegill need different habitat. YP need dense brush, underwater weeds, tumbleweeds, etc., so they can drape their egg skeins over them to keep water circulating around the top, sides and underside of the skeins. Bluegill like sand or pea gravel areas to did out beds for the spawning community. Both fish utilize relatively shallow water OR deeper water, depending on water clarity. I have never seen any of those fish spawn at water depths deeper than a secchi disk reading..