Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Golden shiners

If you don't have a strong plankton community esp zooplankton species diversity,,,, GSH will not thrive. Also if you don't have adequate weed habitat and woody cover habitat at 20%-25% of the pond shoreline area then GSH will struggle to maintain good numbers with a strong LMB population. Also if the pond does not have lots of small 3"-5" BG the shiners will struggle to survive long enough to get to 5"-6" long.

Maybe better than buying GSH as forage reduce the number of foxes in your chicken coop. LMB are usually over crowded in ponds creating the perceived notion there is too little forge fish present when in reality there are too many predators, over eating the pond productivity resulting in not enough food.

I'm almost ADD when I get something in my head, last week this thread got me wanting more GSH. My WE and P in the new pond have some size and are hitting absolutely everything we cast at them soooo...

I ordered another box of brooders! These were huge, biggest they have sent me yet. Split them between two ponds. I just wanted to be sure that I have some big enough to spawn this spring if the others might have gotten ate up from this spring or last year (they probably didn't). I was VERY pleased by the size of them, only one dead loss.
My perch are 8"-10" and the walleye are 11"-12".

PS like BG tend to overpopulate. RES are not known to overpopulate. In addition, PS can be nippers.

Sounds like a good plan except for crappie. Only question is survivability of RES due to cold.

If you want Golden Shiners, I recommend Anderson Fish Farm's shipping of Golden Shiner frye in units of 250,000/bag.

It will get GS established in your pond.

I have ordered from Andersons three times now within a year and all three times have worked out really good. I think they dope the fish a little to make them sleepy then fill bag with oxygen and keep the insulated boxes cool with ice gel packs.

First time I ordered I bought a box of 1000 1.5" and a box of 415 3" maybe a couple dozen total between boxes dead loss at most, I think it was June or July last summer.
Last month I ordered a box of 130 4" brooders maybe 5 or 6 dead loss total.
Last week another brooder box of 130 4" same.

I took them out to pond within an hour of them being delivered and floated them for a half hour like they recommend then turned them loose.
I've been pleased with the transactions I've had, will do it again. GSH are hard to find close to me so it is a good source for my situation. Hopefully they will breed for me in my ponds.

Shipping fish is best done in Spring and Fall when water is cool. 46F to 65F is best for the best success.

TUNA!!!!

We wanted some species of panfish, everything that I researched about the RES made it look right for our situation and our local hatchery had them. I have read that they kind of fill their own niche in a pond and that they are harder to catch, don't spawn heavy but do grow large. It seemed like a good fit for what we are trying to do. Also there weren't any pumpkinseed available close and I had read they are more prolific breeders.

We were looking for something different with this pond, fish that would not bother swimmers and fish that are great to eat. Our species that we thought about putting in changed the more research we did.
We decided on;
FHM and GSH, went heavy with them as soon as the pond had some depth. Minnows spawned like crazy.

Then late last spring we put in;
25 Walleye,
150 Yellow Perch,
100 Red Ears
25 Black Crappie..that I wish now we didn't put in, have taken 14 out so far.
All the fish were around 4" when they went in.

Early Nov we put in 50 4" Small Mouth

Had considered Hybrid Striped Bass but read how they will eat up everything they can fit in their mouths, so not interested in those.

Plan is to thin the walleye down some as they are big enough to eat. Walleye should help keep perch and other smaller fish populations from getting out of control.
The two species we are most interested in are the SM and YP and plan on putting a slot limit on them for thinning for fish fries.

I have always just liked GSH and think they are a very cool forage fish, hope they can find a space in the pond. I guess I can always stock more.
All of those species are supposed to avoid swimmers and that hopefully should keep the wife happy...or at least as happy as she can be as the kids, grandkids and I are catching and eating fish!

Sounds like you've really thought it through. Best of luck!

There are some grass&weed clumps that grew down on sides of pond last summer/fall before water came up that might help them untill a little natural underwater vegatation grows?

We didn't put any bluegill in. We put 100 Red Eared Sunfish in last spring when we added the other fish, I was told they are much more "shy" and shouldn't bother swimmers or over populate and get out of hand. I have seen a couple of small schools of them under the dock, but they don't seem to want to bite on anything we have thrown at them...they look like they are around 6" now. Hopefully they can self-sustain and grow huge so we can eat some of them in the future.