I just bought some land with a pond in Southern Idaho. The pond is about 25 acres in size. The pond was made from gravel mining and is about 26 feet deep. The mining was recently finished and filled with water. The pond has a clean bottom and clear water. The pond is fed from ground water/aquifer.
I would like to eventually have some great bass or trout fishing in the pond. There is not any fish in the pond that I am aware of, but I have seen some small minnows along the edges. I don't even know where to begin with a pond this large. Here is what I am thinking:
1. Add some structure to the bottom (tires, pallets, 2x4 trees, rock, xmas trees.....
2. This Spring, transplant some bass from a friend's private pond into my pond.

What else should I do? Lets say I put 100 bass in this 25 acre pond. How long will it take to have decent fishing? 1 year, 2 years, 5 years?

Thank you for any advice. I am completely green on pond development.

Before putting in bass in your lake you need to get forage fish established FIRST. Since I’m a southern boy I don’t know what kind of forage fish to stock. But whatever you put in as forage give it time to reproduce or you will fight a losing battle trying to keep your predators fed enough to grow. There are plenty of threads to read on here before doing anything...... maybe a pro will give you more insight than I can.

PS welcome to the forum

Five initial things. Other members will more great suggestions.

1. Find out what those small fish are!!!. Knowing what they are will determine how best to proceed. Small minnows could be any specie of fish including small bass, sunfishes, true minnow forage fish or offspring from several other fish types. Get yourself a wire minnow trap, bait it with old bread, pet food or even insects such as grasshoppers or a mixture. You know how to insert pics so take a picture of what you catch in the trap and we can help. As long as the water is not frozen you should be able to catch small fish in a trap if you are seeing some in shallow water. I have caught minnows in traps under the ice.

2. The more forage fish that you first establish in the 25ac the faster growth of the stocker fish will be. Since it is winter you really should not stock sport fish until spring and after you can determine what some of those small fish are and have time to learn more from here about fish management and options of how you can proceed. Look through this link for good management information and many summaries of previous pond topics.
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=22&page=1


3. Determine how much of the shoreline has shallow water. Map the small lake do some depth soundings from shore toward the center so you know about the best places to put structure. Learn if there is submerged humps or ridges on the bottom. Is it a dish pan or does it have some excavated structure which would be fish holding areas. Trout providing the water maintains dissolved oxygen(DO) in the deeper cooler water basin, could do well in a quarry type pond-small lake. Yellow perch walleye and other fish in your region could survive there providing water maintains DO on the bottom.

4. Learn about secchi disk and how to use it. Measurements using it can provide lots of useful water quality information for managing the fishery. Measured water clarity throughout the year will determine the pond productivity and estimates of fish carrying capacity (production).
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92624#Post92624

5, Spend around $5 for this used book from Thrift Books which is at a very good price and it will help doing your fish thing.
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/fishe...17169/#edition=3714023&idiq=37372897

Great information guys. Thank you! I am so glad to find this forum! I will start working my way around this site and learning as much as I can. Thank you for the above links as starting points!

Be careful, the rabbit hole goes deep!! You could very easily wind up like the guy in the movie "The Matrix" when he says "Why didn't I just take the damn blue pill."

Welcome to the forum, Longbows. You've gotten a start here with very sound advice. It's really important to keep your ducks lined up as you proceed.

As an aside, I lived for many years(13) down the road from you. Lloyd Lane on the Snake just a mile above the Marsing bridge. My 7 acres was immediately adjacent to a gravel pit. I wanted a pond, but without big bucks for a liner, I wasn't going to keep water in my porous soil. I did have 345 feet of Snake River frontage, so that was some compensation. Ha!

Here is some reference information when you have a pond in Idaho. It is usually good to at least know ones state's rules.

https://idfg.idaho.gov/fish/private-ponds

https://agri.idaho.gov/main/animals/fish/commercial-fish-farms/

Longbows, the reason why we say get the forage fish base established first is because bass eat a LOT of fish. Here's some info and you can do the math to see how much forage fish you need.

A single bass needs to eat 10# of fish to gain 1# of weight. PLUS they need to eat fish that are 1/4 to 1/3 their body length to gain enough calories per meal to grow and not just be exchanging calories to chase down their prey. Remember a bass doesn't catch a fish every time they try to catch one....

That's why getting the forage base established is so important.

If it was a Southern pond, I'd say stock 3,000 bluegills per surface acre and then stock 50 bass per surface acre. As you can see, it's important to get the forage base established first.

One good forage fish to look for in Idaho and your large pond is the redside shiner (Richardsonius balteatus). This one can grow to 5"-6" and is known to spawn in lake / pond habitats.