Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - 1st Time stock channel cats in 10 year old pond

howdy everyone! I'm back!! My 2 acre pond is now 10 years old and I have nothing but lmb and huge coppernose bluegill. bluegill weigh over one pound each at the largest ones. I have lmb that should be 8-10 pounds but can't catch them. I finally have decided to stock channel cats to be able to catch something easier and good to eat!! My wife and i are NOT getting any younger. We want to CATCH big fish! I feed year round and have aeriation year round. Again, it is 2 acres and 12 foot deep in the deep end. Is NOW the time of year to stock catfish??? How many and how big for this pond???

Personally? After experiencing them in my own pond, and seeing what the big ones do to BG populations, I'd stock them in my pond only under a few certain rules. 1) I had an overabundance of forage for both the Bass and Catfish IF my goal was to grow and keep larger bass in the pond. 2) I would not have any reproduction habitat in the pond for the CC. 3) Any CC I caught I'd keep. I have seen first hand just how hard they are to catch after being caught once or twice. They are MUCH harder to catch than bass.

Mercury levels in your fish or pond is most likely dependent on the natural level in your surrounding soil. Do the lakes in your local area have elevated levels of mercury?

Mercury also tends to concentrate UP the food chain, especially in top predators that eat forage that ate smaller forage that ate even smaller forage that had consumed some mercury.

On a heavy feed plan of good quality, they should mostly be eating your food and in my (non-expert) opinion would be very UNLIKELY to have elevated levels of mercury. As the catfish rapidly gain weight on the feed, any initial mercury in the muscle mass of the fish should actually tend to a lower concentration with an increase in size.

If you are going to eat LOTS of catfish from your pond for many years, maybe you could test a few of the largest ones for mercury. No idea where to get that test, but if you are close enough to the coast, one of your nearby universities might be able to perform that test. Or perhaps a state agency.

P.S. That follows on cb100's comment about local mercury levels. If they are very low, then I would definitely say "no worries".