Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - I've got two small ponds and a plan...

I'm a newbie who has a chance to work on two small ( 1/5ac ) ponds on my in-laws property in Bradford TN. I live near Albuquerque and visit there 3 or 4 times a year. It seems to be a very interesting opportunity. So I researched and came up with a plan. I'd love to hear from you folks who actually have done this. The two ponds are very different. One is about 3/4 ringed by a tight band of 20ft tall trees. The other had the trees removed. No idea of the depth, but not a lot. Both ponds exhibit good pond life: frogs, crawdads, turtles, moccasins. My BIL stocked some LMB and BG ten or so years ago. That's it. He hasn't done anything, not even fish them; since then. Another nice benefit? About 15 miles away in Milan is a nice couple who run a fish pond stocking biz. They have 5ac of ponds. So It's less than an hour for me to drive there, pick up my bagged fish, and drive home. Lots of good karma here. As for fish in the two ponds? In the pond surrounded by trees (TP) my BIL and I have yet to get a bite. Though there have to be some fish there. When I was there in late April I saw lots of little minnows along the bank. The pond without trees? It's full of fish (I'll call it the FP). I have to say, I'm amazed at the fish in it. There are well established BG and LMB populations. When I was there two weeks ago, I did a little survey fishing for big bass. Within an hour I caught a 2lber on a segmented shad lure. Then I switched to a frog and a LMB just blew up on it. It had to be at least 3lbs. Dang impressive for an unmanaged, small pond. When I 1st went to fish it in April my SIL said she didn't think there were any fish in it. I've caught LMB from 6in to 3lbs with lots in between. In April I tried a small grasshopper lure with very small treble hooks. As soon as it hit the water a small, 4in, BG hit it. I caught 6 in a row before I stopped. My BIL and I have also caught some larger, spawning size BG. Given this info and some research, I made the following decisions. I'd love to hear what you think. Don't worry I have thick skin. 9/1/25 will be our 35th. Lol.

1. Aim the FP to grow big BG. For that it seems the main requirement is a lot of small and medium sized LMB. Obviously this pond has that.

2. Make the TP the bass pond.

3. Next summer catch and remove the few largest LMB from their pond and put into the TP. Assuming I do this, should I remove the big bass pre or post spawn? How many/ what size should I remove from my BG pond to add to my bass pond?

4. Get the food chain going in the TP. To this end at the end of April I added 2lbs of FHM and 100 BG fingerlings. Along with 2 GC. When I was there 2 weeks ago, my BIL and I focused on catching BG and moving them to the bass pond. We moved about 6 small ones and 2 or 3 breeding sized ones. I clipped the fins on a couple and threw them back in for a little LMB sushi. My SIL said she say tons of minnows in the TP when she mowed so the FHMs seemed to have spawned some.

5. Next spring or summer catch and transfer the big LMB from the FP to the TP.

6. Stocked each pond in late April. FP: 2GC, 2lbs FHM. TP: 2GC, 2lbs FHM, 100 BG fingerlings.

7. Should I stock BG fingerlings in the FP? I'm afraid they'll just make an expensive bass snack.

8. Is the idea to start with big bass wrong? As opposed to starting with small bass and nurturing them for years? My selfish view? I don't know if I have enough rotations around the sun for that to happen.

9. I'll be there in November. Is it worth doing any more stocking?

10. On my last visit I put a few Pondking habitats in the ponds. Both ponds got one nursery and one Grass Bed. The TP got a 2nd Grass Bed. The FB got a Shrub.

11. I'm sure I overlooked all kinds of things so please let me hear from you.

12. Yes I realize I'm being a touch anal compulsive here. But I'm enjoying the heck out of this.

And we're on schedule to have a larger pond (3/4ac) built this fall. I'm looking forward to that.

Thanks!

Brian

Brian:

The focus on the TP pond is to get the forage base established, thriving and diversified size wise. Remember that bass need food to eat that are about 1/4 to 1/3 their body length to grow the fastest. Don't worry about stocking bigger bass in there at the moment, they will grow fast if given enough forage. A 2" bass stocked in May can be 2# by October if there is enough food for them in the pond. The key will be keeping the bass numbers down and NOT fishing for them because they will get hook shy quickly. So I would say wait until next Spring in April or May about a week before the full moon and catch a few female bass from the FP and ONLY stock female bass. no more than 15. Then don't fish for them and let them grow in there.

You will need approximately 1,700 sq. ft of cover for the fish in each of the ponds.... So the cover that you put in there is a good start. Spend your evenings reading about cover in ponds in the archives.

The FP will need bass that are smaller than 14". Any bass that is bigger than that? Remove it. I would feed the fish a good commercial fish food. Endurance Feed is what I recommend. Purina AquaMax is good too, but the fish may develop fatty livers on it and they might not live as long. You could see if you could buy some feed trained bass, fin clip them and put them in the FP. Grow them over the next year until they are sexually mature (14+" or so) and then transfer 15 females to the TP. If you stock both sex bass in the TP, then you will educate them fishing wise as you keep the excess bass harvested out. Then once the bass get to the trophy size you want, they will be hard to catch, and a lot of the forage food that you will grow in there will just be feeding bass that you are removing. To me that is a waste of forage fish.

How deep are the 1/5 ac ponds? Do they have electricity near them? Aerating the ponds if they are deeper than 6-7 feet will really help them hold and grow more fish, and you will need all the forage fish you can grow for the TP pond.

For the new pond that they are building, think about the fishery, create the bottom structure that should be there, and plan/build/place all the cover in the pond before it fills with water..... Maybe have fish species in that one that are different than the other 2 ponds.

Learn to tell the difference between male and female BG. Remove female BG from the FP pond.

Yeah, being halfway across the country isn't ideal. However my BIL lives there and is now a lot more interested in his two ponds so they wouldn't be neglected between my visits. He works home construction so I'm hoping those fancy fake habitats will inspire him to make some with the endless construction debris that's out there.