I just bought some land with a pond in Southern Idaho. The pond is about 25 acres in size. The pond was made from gravel mining and is about 26 feet deep. The mining was recently finished and filled with water. The pond has a clean bottom and clear water. The pond is fed from ground water/aquifer. I would like to eventually have some great bass or trout fishing in the pond. There is not any fish in the pond that I am aware of, but I have seen some small minnows along the edges. I don't even know where to begin with a pond this large. Here is what I am thinking: 1. Add some structure to the bottom (tires, pallets, 2x4 trees, rock, xmas trees..... 2. This Spring, transplant some bass from a friend's private pond into my pond.
What else should I do? Lets say I put 100 bass in this 25 acre pond. How long will it take to have decent fishing? 1 year, 2 years, 5 years?
Thank you for any advice. I am completely green on pond development.
Great information guys. Thank you! I am so glad to find this forum! I will start working my way around this site and learning as much as I can. Thank you for the above links as starting points!
Be careful, the rabbit hole goes deep!! You could very easily wind up like the guy in the movie "The Matrix" when he says "Why didn't I just take the damn blue pill."
Welcome to the forum, Longbows. You've gotten a start here with very sound advice. It's really important to keep your ducks lined up as you proceed.
As an aside, I lived for many years(13) down the road from you. Lloyd Lane on the Snake just a mile above the Marsing bridge. My 7 acres was immediately adjacent to a gravel pit. I wanted a pond, but without big bucks for a liner, I wasn't going to keep water in my porous soil. I did have 345 feet of Snake River frontage, so that was some compensation. Ha!
Longbows, the reason why we say get the forage fish base established first is because bass eat a LOT of fish. Here's some info and you can do the math to see how much forage fish you need.
A single bass needs to eat 10# of fish to gain 1# of weight. PLUS they need to eat fish that are 1/4 to 1/3 their body length to gain enough calories per meal to grow and not just be exchanging calories to chase down their prey. Remember a bass doesn't catch a fish every time they try to catch one....
That's why getting the forage base established is so important.
If it was a Southern pond, I'd say stock 3,000 bluegills per surface acre and then stock 50 bass per surface acre. As you can see, it's important to get the forage base established first.