Stocking your 2 acres with a minnow “grab bag” from local Toronto creeks is a feasible method PROVIDING you CAREFULLY sort the small fish to remove: all sunfish types - especially green sunfish, bullheads, common carp, suckers and redhorse. Carefully avoid them. Know the body features of common fishes in your Toronto local area. General rule is when in doubt, toss it out. SMB do not live real well and grow big bass with the northern sunfishes as the main forage fish. All those previously named species can cause various types of long term problems for your SMB-walleye(WE) fishery.

I have done lots of minnow creek trapping some of it in Canada. I spent one entire summer on a Canada lake for my MS thesis. I have the very good book Freshwater Fishes of Canada (Scott & Crossman). Extensive studying about the common small fishes has shown me a lot of the common minnows/shiners that occur in your local creeks will not reproduce in the still water pond conditions. A lot of those are stream species and need moving stream water and gravel substrate conditions for completing a spawn and egg hatching. Some to numerous of those in the ‘grab bag’ that are stocked will not breed when put into your pond; they will live, grow to adult size, and then die in usually several years.

All of the chub species, including the very common creek chub, will NOT reproduce in your pond; yes,,,, live okay, but won’t reproduce. The very common creek chubs can grow to 8”-10” long in the pond before they die of old age. The only local "grab bag" species that could cause some water clarity problems would be the suckers and redhorses when they grow large because too many would tend to roil the sediments when searching the sediments for food that create unwanted turbidity. Several suckers would be okay but with lots of them,,,, I see as potential problems.

Those several stocked minnows/shiners species that do manage to recruit new youngsters will provide a type of good forage base. Although many of those reproducer species will be small adults such as red belly dace, and will not grow very large and may not perpetuate very long in the pond with predators of SMB and WE unless extensive dense habitat is present. The typical several local Toronto stream species most likely to thrive in your pond habitat would be the native fathead minnow, common bluntnose minnows, golden shiner and spotfiin shiner. Our Forum member Donno did manage to get common shiner and emerald shiner to reproduce successfully in his yellow perch pond by providing special moving water conditions from a fairly large waterfalls. The common lake shiner as spottail shiner, has a remote but very doubtful success of spawning well in your pond.


I suggest that you ALSO go to some local small lake habitats and set a baited (old bread) minnow trap in some of the remote shoreline areas for minnows that thrive live in that lake. Those species present "suggest” that they are successful pond/lake dwellers and able to spawn in still water conditions, although some may have been hatched in feeder streams and live their life in the lake. Those lake minnows present are VERY likely to be the ones to reproduce in your pond. Beaver ponds in Canada are also good places to collect pond dwelling minnow species. Golden shiners are a common successful shiner in many Canada lakes.

In my long pond management experience, your stocking plan IMO for best success, needs a panfish such as the yellow perch(YP) that serves as a very good compatible forge fish with SMB & WE and is very good table fare. Well balanced YP numbers can easily grow to 10"-12" long. Well balanced YP numbers is key to growing 12" long YP.
The YP feeds well on invertebrates and small fish and will provide lots of small forage for SMB and WE... I would use WE as a bonus fish and not stock more than 5-7/ ac unless the pond has a dense minnow population. Maybe omit the WE until you see and abundance of small YP and or minnows. WE as 15”-16" individuals eat up to 5” perch. WE in ponds struggle to grow beyond 3 lbs. Perch are common in lots of lakes in Canada. There is a good natural reason for this common northern fishery combination.

Perch and some of the young SMB will also pellet train fairly well with good conscious effort and encouragement to eat high protein pellets. Pellets grow fish faster and more of them per acre. Although YP do not need to be fed pellets. But without pellets fewer total pounds of fish will be raised per acre. Quite a few harvestable fish can be raised on all natural foods in a 2 ac pond. A natural fed fishery with a good balanced proper harvest and population management in 2 ac can grow a very nice harvestable fishery. Fertility and clarity of the pond water determines quantity of the fish that can be raised per acre. Very clear water ponds grow notably fewer fish per acre. If you decide to add YP to the pond, I would first allow the minnows to reproduce one summer along with maybe several added mature 5”-7”+ YP. Then after or just before the first YP spawn add the predators to help control the 1st reproduction from the YP so you do not have an early overpopulation of YP and a better chance of fishery balance of prey fish and predator.

I agree with Snipe's wise comment that 1" SMB are not well pellet trained and at that size will very likely not continue eating pellets in a pond with lots of natural foods. Best stocker pellet trained SMB are 4"-6" long and have a $ value of $10-$15 each! Smaller ones may not eat pellets well when placed in a food rich pond. Snipe also wisely says that SMB will not reproduce enough small fish to feed even several WE per acre. I wholly agree. Plan on EACH WE and adult SMB to eat at least 300-400 small fish per year

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