I stocked my new 1 acre pond about a month ago with 250 BG, 100 Redear, 4# FH minnows, 4# Golden Shiners, and 50 4"-6" Channel Cat fingerlings.

Other than the first week after stocking, I've seen very little "movement" activity, top water ripples, etc. or sightings of this initial stocking.

I've thrown out about 3 coffee cans of fish food within the last month.

Last Staurday, my wife & I walked the pond. We saw a few small ripples. But, the worst sight I had was 4 dead BG's, each about 3"-4", in about 18" of water plus a few dead FH's.--no sightings--dead or alive of any CC's or others.

Is this something I should be alarmed about? Do I have the whole stocking laying dead on their sides in deeper water? Or, is the population just "dormat", not moving around much, etc.?

The average depth in the deeper end is 6'-8' (12' deepest)18"-3' in the shallower areas. I placed brush piles and rock structures per Lusk's book and postings on this forum.

During the day, I can see to a depth of about 4'-5'. I haven't tried "spotlighting" other than trying my truck lights on brights. Still seeing no fish!

Your thoughts, please?

GlenB,

My thoughts...not to worry. Most likely everything is fine. This time of year you wouldn't expect to see any fish come to the feed, especially little ones newly stocked. I would expect to see some FH around the edges of the water, but even the absense of that wouldn't be cause for concern.
When spring gets here and you start feeding again if you don't see any activity after a couple of weeks...then get concerned. The few dead ones you are seeing are probably from the trama of the initial stocking.

After the initial stocking of my pond in the fall I went months without seeing any evidence of fish. Made me nervous, thinking that they all died and sunk to the bottom. But by the next spring, I saw fish everywhere.

Well, guess I'll keep checking every few days and wait until spring for confirmation that they're alive & well!

Thanks for the input.

GlenB, I just stocked my new 4 acre with 1000 channels, 800 Coppernose, 600 Red Ear and 22 lbs of Fathead minnows about the same time as you and haven't seen any activity either except the minnows. Since I know they are alive maybe the fish made it. I was concerned but everyone tells me to wait to spring also to see what I have. Can't hardly wait.

RatherBFishin,

I'm interested in what you find in the spring relative to the redears. Three years ago, I stocked 1000 redears (along with a bunch of other fish) into a 3.5 acre pond in East Texas and they completely disappeared by the following spring. Other fish did great, but the redears disappeared without a trace.

GlenB..It does bother me you saw dead fish. Mortality a month after stocking is unusual. I expect your fish stocking to be fine. Don't expect fish to come to fish food this time of year. Cooler water temps slow fish metabolism rates, and food requirements diminish. And, the number of fish you stocked is fairly low, so I wouldn't expect to see much action, until spring. Stop feeding for now, restart in the second week of March for your location. After fish become accustomed to the pond, and reproduce a few times, you will begin to see activity. If you feed the fish consistently, and don't see feeding activity by mid to late May, then you may have a better reason to be concerned.