Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Initial pond stocking quantities

Hello I built a roughly 1.75 acre pond in Central Illinois in October of 2024. I put in 15 pounds of fathead minnows last Spring 2025. There was only about half an acre of water in it at the time. Last fall I went ahead and put in 250 red ear sunfish and 750 blue gill that I bought at the soil and water fish sale. There was probably an acre of water at the time. I am now wanting to put in some largemouth bass and a few channel catfish. I have also thought about some yellow perch but wasn’t sure if that was recommended. The pond now has probably a little over an acre and a half of water in it. I'd like to put some more fish in now but I just wasn’t sure what was recommended for what I am hoping to do. Also, should I add more red ear sunfish and bluegill now that there is more water or just stock all the species for an acre of water and let them get up to the carry capacity naturally? Thanks for any suggestions.

Does the pond hope to cater to the largemouth bass? What is the main focus?

I'm not trying to grow giant bass. I just want a diverse pond that I can catch a variety of fish in and be able to have some for my friends and family to eat from time to time.

Sounds like a great pond in the making Droptine.

A lot of publications will say that you are trying to achieve a 10:1 prey-to-predator relationship. The largemouth bass has one big downfall; he will eat himself out of house and home. Ponds that are focused on extreme bass growth will push that ratio to 50:1 in favor of the baitfish.

I love that you gave your forage fish a head start on the predators. If they are doing well, then you should certainly be able to add some predators. Baby largemouth will be ready to add in June I would assume. I'm not familiar with stocking catfish or yellow perch.

As for the numbers of bass, you could start low at 25 per acre and let the fish tell you how they're doing after 6 months / 9 months / 1 year etc... Personally, I'd rather add low numbers of bass initially to avoid over predation. Stocking lower bass numbers could also leave you more room for the other species you mentioned.

The 10/1 ratio is advice from old southern research on producing food from ponds in the 30s and 40s via the cooperative extension services/USDA. In many northern states the advice is not encouraged as BG tend to stunt faster.

For example here is a quote from Penn.

"When stocking these fish together, bass should be one year older than the bluegill. A stocking rate of 100 bass and 200 to 500 bluegill has been successful in Pennsylvania. " See his note below for the PA reference.

That all depends on what the pond owner is harvesting. I haven't seen a BG stunted pond that had LMB in it, and I've seen a LOT of ponds. I have seen a considerable number of both LMB and SMB ponds where the bass are stunted. Even the ponds where the LMB aren't stunted, an electroshock survey has shown that if corrective stocking numbers of BG aren't stocked, the LMB will start to stunt. I only know of one pond where the owner religiously takes out fish every year that doesn't have at least one year class of BG missing or 90% missing.

That is from the Penn lake mgt publication. It is talking about initial stocking not down the road management results.