Hey guys my Dad had a pond put in about 10 years ago. Its just over 2.5 suface acrs and its 16ft deep. We have in it CC, HBG, BG, white crappie, yellow perch, and LMB. The average size of the BG are about 8-10in and weigh about 1lbs. The CC are about 4lbs, LMB are about 12in .5lbs, The yellow perch and white crappie were added last year on April 30th of 2021 at 100 yellow perch at 4-6in long, the white crappie were the same at 100 and also 4-6in long. We also added 3000 Flat Head Minnows. During ice fishing this past winter we caught some of the White crappie which they grown to 8in-10in. We have yet to catch any of the yellow perch.

Back in Janunary of this year I ordered 5000 minnows for the pond and they came in and will be put into the pond tomorrow. For the last 4 years we always added 3000 minnows and this year I bumped it up to 5000. I told my dad they were in and he said this is going to be the last year for them cause he wants to balance the pond out. Which to me makes no sense. So I am wondering should we keep adding minnows to the pond? Or wait and see what all is swimming along the shore come late summer? Last summer I did see alot of smaller BG, LMB, along with tad poles, and Minnows. So do you think the pond by now is making enough food for the bigger fish so that I should not have to worry about stocking minnows? Or should I just keep adding minnows secretly?

bassman, if money is not a concern, then certainly adding minnows each year will have some benefits to the existing predator fish.

Ideally, it would be great to have an established population of some kind of minnow that sustains it's presence. Some species of 'minnows' may do that, others not so much. Conventional wisdom says fathead minnows will mostly all get eaten when put into a BOW with numerous predator fish. I don't think that every single fathead gets eaten, but still, the population may not thrive.

Now, I've see Golden Shiners exist and thrive in a pond with numerous predator fish....to the point where I think there may be too many golden shiners in the pond. There's pros and cons to that.

Money is not the problem. The problem is having a landowner and a father who refuses to listen to advice. Hate to get personal here but its what I have delt with all my 35 years of my life. I am just worried that the pond is going to be runied. He added 12 GC to help control the alge problem well then he noticed that none of the big bass have come back so he starting shooting the GC thinking for some reason they were making the big bass go away? Anyways as you can tell he does not know what hes doing, you try to give in advice and he just gets mad. So I dont know what you do.

Well, is your Dad the landowner, or are you? I ask in the most sensitive way possible. If it's him, you're a bit out of luck.

Certainly, you could stock it without him knowing about it, maybe.... but that's not quite right either if he's passionate about his thoughts for the pond.

Taking OFF a year or two of annual minnow stockings isn't going to do too much damage, IMO.

Dad is the landowner.

Wonder if feeding might help more than minnows. Besides, it's fun!

Google White Amur (GC) and you'll find what you need to show him about how much algae they will consume.. None, as they can't process algae.
On the FHM side of the coin, any fish present will make very short work out of any introduction of Fatheads.

bassman_67,

There are two sides to the coin of managing fish. One is ensuring there are enough nutrients and minerals to support the food chain required to support the standing weight of fish that you desire. The other is ensuring that there are not too many individual fish to grow them to the size desired.

I empathize with both you and your dad. I imagine that he had a conversation recently with someone. Perhaps it began with "We keep throwing money at this pond and getting less than the results we are looking for. Its growing old." That someone might have discussed harvest management with him. Harvest management seeks to achieve balance such that ponds food chain is sufficient to meet the size goals of the fish you guys are trying to grow. One of the best diaries here on the forum is that of Bocomo's which records the success transition of pond like yours to one that produces some nice fat bass in excess of 4 lbs. You can find Bocomo's thread here.

If after reading it you like this approach to improving fish condition then you and your dad will have some common ground. It could be a project that will offer opportunities to create some great memories together. I wish you the best on this.

Firstly lets start with -
1. For the 2.5 acres how many pounds and specific numbers of each fish species that are harvested from the pond each year?
2. What is the weed community structure / density % area with what type of submerged weed/s in this pond?
3. What is the usual water clarity/visibility ?
4. If you do not have that information then good advice from here is weakly based.

Well just got a text from the store that was selling the fish. The hatchery that was bringing the fish are not going to make it til late this evening like around 8pm. Its a 90 mile drive to the pond, plus there is going to be heavy rain by that time so there goes that.


1. We harvest manily blugill the LMB, CC, and everything else we have left alone. We did take about 20lbs of CC out last year. I would guess we harvest about 20 lbs of BG every spring depending on if we can there during the year.

2. As far as weeds its usually cattail, big blue grass, clover, ect.

3. The water is usally very clear.