I have a previously stocked pond on my Dads land. I was wanting to restock it with BG and maybe add 50 catfish for eating later. The pond was crystal clear, then we expanded it from 0.4 to 0.8 acres. It is clay and stayed muddy for at least a year. Well now it is back to very clear with some grasses growing in it. I don't want to go back to zero visibility so if the cats could pose a problem, I will go with a few HSB.

Thanks

I have about 65 to 70 eating size channel catfish in my 1/4 acre pond. I feed as much as they will eat in warmer months. If it wasn't for FA and plankton growth the visibility would be six feet. As is, it's about three to four feet.

Before anybody tells me, I know I will need to catch at least 30 of them out before hot weather, and I plan to try to do so and fill the freezer with what we cannot immediately consume.

Edit: Pond is all clay bottom except for my rock piles I put in.

Thanks John, I guess it makes it a little more difficult to answer because this is a clay bottom pond. Anybody else?

50 catfish in a .8 acre pond won't muddy the water, unless most of the water is less than five feet deep. If you allow them to grow beyond about 4 pounds each, the odds go up that they can muddy the water, especially in shallow water.

Thanks Bob, the pond in question has over 50% 4 ft or less with the max depth on full pool at aprox 8 ft.

Maybe that was part of the problem, we didn't cull very many of the catfish from the original stocking and they grew pretty large for a small pond. The largest was just under 11bs