Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Hybrid Black Crappie vs Bass in new Pond

The TGC will be starving in there, and might root around in the bottom to look for things to eat. I bet any grass clippings that make it to the pond will be eaten too. The future issue is if you try to get any underwater weeds established, they will make that impossible. A customer in Illinois with a 4 acre pond tried for years to get some weeds established. Last year we electroshocked 2 TGC, one was a hair over 50#, the other was 39#. He didn't know that they were in there.

Mosquito fish really aren't needed, and without any shoreline cover for the minnows to hide in to escape predation they will be short lived. You can put them in, but just be aware about that.

I would put FHM in there along with a few Mosquito Fish to take some predation pressure off of the Mosquito Fish, and consider stocking some GSH. The GSH WILL grow too big for the predators to eat, but the offspring will feed the YP, RES and SMB. You can stock 100 HSB 6"-8" HSB (33/ac) when you stock the SMB in there in a few years. The HSB will concentrate on eating the GSH and will grow fast, AND will not reproduce in the pond. This Christmas, I'd go to the closest Big Box Store and pick up all the unsold live Christmas Trees you can. Use a single cinderblock for 6 trees. Tie them together and loop the cord through the cinderblock. I like using paracord. Put the trees in 3'-4' water depth. That will be habitat for the YP to spawn on, and it might help keep the smaller fish alive a wee bit longer, giving them some cover to hide in. If placed away from the swimming area, they will be in water that the jet skiis will not be in too.

There are no such thing as Hybrid SMB. I'd add the SMB at 25 per acre. I know in a customers pond where the SMB weren't harvested once they started spawning, they overpopulated and basically ate all the RES and YP that they could. That 1 ac pond was stocked with 50 SMB.