Hello All,
I'm a new member with a new pond looking for advice. It is about 2/3 of an acre nestled in the hills in the northern MO. The pond is about half full. It has very steep banks over about 95% of the perimeter with just two spots that have slope less than 30-40 degrees. The two small spots are on the watershed side and both have slopes of 15-20 degrees. In other words, there are not a lot of flat spots for spawning. The bottom is clay and I do not have any structure in the pond to date, although I anticipate being able to add a couple of brush piles this spring. I eventually want to establish bluegill, redear, largemouth bass, and a reasonable population of catfish. My plan is to stock this spring with fathead minnows, 150 fingerling bluegill, 50 fingerling redear, and 50 6-8 inch catfish. I plan to wait a year and stock 50 bass next spring. My goal is large bluegill. Without much spawning area, will I have problems maintaining fish populations? Any advice would be much appreciated!

I don't think that maintaining fish in your pond to meet your goals will be a problem due to the pond banks being sharply tapered. Will you be feeding your fish in the pond? I am curious why such a light stocking number on the BG/RES?

Welcome to the forum!

Thanks for the quick reply and guidance! I will not be feeding the fish, as the property is 3 hours away and I cannot visit very frequently. My planned stocking rate was based on the pond only being half full this spring (I'm guessing 0.4 acre) and a MO Department of Conservation stocking rec of 500 bluegill/redear per acre. I didn't want to push the capacity. Do you think I should bump up that rate and if so, to what number? I also have the ability to stock some healthy adults from a neighboring pond. Would that be a mistake?

Mike:

If you think that the pond will come up this year, I'd go and stock the full pond amount. I wouldn't put in adults from the other pond for a couple of reasons.

1) you might bring in unwanted parasites or plant life
2) You might bring in unwanted genetics

There are automated feeders on the market that run off of a 12v battery with a solar panel. If you feed good food, you could double your growth rates (or more). They can be adjusted to feed from once per day to multiple times per day, and the length of each feeding can be adjusted too. I feed the fish in my pond; I go thru about 50# of food a month.

Richmond Mills feeds their BG. The water IS managed, but they have BG now that are over 3#. Good water quality and good management can grow some trememdous fish!