Found these forums recently and been doing my best to soak in knowledge. We got a new pond dug a couple weeks ago, central Mississippi, roughly 1/2 acre. We're new to all this and have some questions, mainly about stocking timelines. The goal is eventually some nice bass fishing, with some bream and catfish for the little one when she gets old enough. Willing and able to harvest and eat any pond denizens in the name of population management. Depth ranges from 3 to 6 feet. We don’t mind keeping it more wild, and we’d rather not have to manage it too closely beyond fertilization, pellet feed, and restocking small baitfish as needed whenever the fish truck is in town – so with that in mind, please let me know if our plan is too ambitious for a 1/2 acre pond. Expectation management and all that.
Fortunately? Unfortunately? Earlier this week we had two days of solid rain, which was enough to fill it from bone-dry to about 2/3 full. We didn't expect it to get near this full until winter, so we have no structure yet. I'd appreciate any tips for adding all the structure needed to an already full pond. Anyway, now that it's nearly full we’re looking into what we can stock before winter. Plan:
As soon as possible: fertilize, two weeks later stock 5-10lbs FHM Fall 22: 350 BG, 150 RES, 50 channel cats Spring 23: 20 LMB fingerlings, 10 freshwater stingrays (kidding… I wish)
Other notes/questions: - Is this timeline realistic or should we expect to stock BG/RES/cats in fall 2023 instead? - Will we need to pellet feed? (that's fine) - Thoughts on what type of bass? We're planning on Florida LMB. - Assuming we stock FHM by this fall, should we expect to have to restock FHM next spring? Unsure if aquatic plants will come in fast enough to give them cover to hide/spawn in fall/winter, or if that even matters. - We'd like to add a couple koi (no more than 2-3 at first) to control aquatic weeds as grass carp would. We keep some in our little garden pond so we know they do well in this climate. Going to make sure they're big enough to survive any predators in the pond. - We'd like to add some mosquitofish. If they don't all get eaten we expect them to be able to take up residence in the extremely shallow edges of the pond. - Expecting plenty of wild crayfish and frogs moving in - Is it a bad idea to add random, inexpertly-identified small baitfish/minnows from my dad's pond for some variety? - Is it a bad idea to add inexpertly-identified bluegill/RES from my dad's pond? All of his fish originally came from a fish truck years ago. (I'm personally more wary of doing this)
Thank you for any input. If anything I said or asked makes no sense, it’s probably out of ignorance!
I prefer to not stock predators until the prey has had time to do some pretty good spawning. Bass can go through a lot of groceries in a hurry. I prefer to stock minnows and sunfish simultaneously and predators after they have had time to spawn a couple of times. In other words, stock bass when they can go to sleep with their mouth open and wake up with a full belly.
Cats seldom do a good job of reproducing in a pond. They are slow swimmers and go everywhere in a school so are easily picked off by everything larger.
The old, suggested stocking #s at 10 to 1 was for producing fish for food during the depression. Newer models for recreation (depending on goals) for southern ponds use higher BG/RES #s to sustain LMB populations for an extra year or so. 20 to 1 for regular pond goals and 30 to 1 for trophy LMB ponds are now common. Those are just starter #s and mgt is necessary after stocking.
