Hello Pond Boss community,
I�m looking to find a source who will deliver this fall to central Virginia. Trying to decide between 4-6� and 6-8� of all species and numbers listed below.
75 hsb
75 smb
75 walleye
50 cc
500 yellow perch
250 black crappie
Planning ahead, any advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Heppy

We need more details, but just looking at what you gave us you would not want to put all of those in at the same time. You don't have a clear plan on your forage, middle of the food chain fish, and your apex predators.

The crappie pose their own problems and you could easily save a lot of money by cutting back on the YP, while doing the forage/YP in stages.

But again, we don't know anything about the size of the pond, what is in there now, and what your goals are.

Most people here would say that if channel cats are your apex predator that 10 might be more than enough and if CC are your apex predator then not sure you would do SMB and walleye too?

Curious to hear more...

canyoncreek,
Original post:
Stocking plan for my 3 acre pond.
stock fatheads, emeralds and golden shiners along with the toads, frogs, and spring lizards already there. Get at least 5-10 lbs of each started in the spring, but can do quite a bit more if budget allows� feed the minnows during the summer crushed up catfish food or even crushed up high protein feed to grow tons of forage all summer long!
stock the redear sunfish in the spring/summer 2019.
Option 1:
The fall 2019 stocking to do all the species of fish the first fall
75 hsb
75 smb
75 walleye
50 cc
500 yellow perch
250 black crappie
With this plan put/take the predator species about every 2-3 years just add in what you want to take out.
Option 2:
Incrementally add predator species with a focus on something more than another do the crappie and perch and cc this fall and then go on a three year rotation of the smallmouth, walleye, and hsb� it would be something like this:
Fall 2019 do about 100 smallmouth and 100 walleye
Spring 2020 do about 50-100 hsb�
Then every fall just throw in a few smb, or walleye, or hsb � one year do a few smallies, the next year do a few walleye, and the next year do a few hsb�.
feed about 100 lbs of high protein fish food per month from April to October with the multi-species pond plan.
Curious as to what others think about this plan and the choice of which option would be best in your opinion?
Note: This is the recommended stocking plan advised to me by a very well known Pond/Lake Management Company not something I thought of by myself. I will be doing one of the 2 options just not 100% on which one.
Thanks for your suggestions!

Heppy

canyoncreek,
I decided to go with option 1.
Fish suppliers?
Thanks!
Heppy

Heppy, I don't know your area and generally keep my mouth shut about stocking and managing anywhere but West Texas. Keep that in mind. I'm open to being educated about the East coast. BTW, I've never even seen a yellow perch.

However, that said, I question the advice by the well known lake management/fish seller.

First, crappie aren't advised in any water hole of less than 25 acres. They are highly prolific, early spawners, have a hinged jaw, and can pretty well decimate the young of year of other species. That leads to a bunch of runty, skinny crappie.

Predators need forage that is between 1/4 to 1/3 their size. Its a matter of energy expended versus protein received. Fathead minnows are generally only stocked to boost and help feed other larger species when small. They don't last long and can't be considered an ongoing protein source for larger fish.

Without draining, taking out larger predator species every 3 years is a lot easier said than done.

Dave Davidson1,
I appreciate your concern in helping me avoid a mistake. To quote Bill Cody �HSB would be a much more compatible fish with the YP-BCP combination. HSB could be added or harvested based on the predatory pressure needed to maintain the goal of balance.� This was referring to a much smaller BCP, YP only pond. I assume that fisheries management has now found the solution to the overpopulation, stunting issues of the past. Also, I am in complete agreement with you about the FHM. The other forage listed along with crawfish will help sustain the forage population in addition to the 100lbs of high protein fish food per month April-October. Thus far I have found Zetts, SE Pond, and Rainbowhead. Are there any other fish suppliers anyone would recommend?
Thanks!
Heppy

The only one I personally know, in your general area, is Greg Grimes in Ball Ground Georgia.

I PERSONALLY would add bluegills. They are huge spawners and should do a good job of feeding your predators when they get too large to live on minnows. And, the minnows are generally used to give other small stocked fish a jump start. They disappear after year one but have done their job. I'm not adverse to adding fatheads every year to feed young of year fish. If you want them to possibly last a little longer, add some nesting structure for them. They nest on the under side of structure in shallow water. Old tires that have had holes cut to sink seen to work great.

Not all of your fish will come to feed in a 3 acre pond. Especially the smaller ones that are groceries for the larger ones. And, you did say, as budget allows. We all have that constraint.

At this time, the water in Texas is too warm to add fish to water. No idea about your area.

You might consider getting on Facebook on, I believe, Wednesday night. Lusk has a program and fields questions.

Thanks Dave!
Heppy

Take a look at the Pond Boss Resource Guide, too.

https://www.pondboss.com/Resources?lci=5

Bob Lusk,
I appreciate you giving me the link to the Pond Boss resource guide. I�ve looked through the list and the fish farms seem to be located in Texas or in the Midwest. Another fish farm I was able to source in my general area is Delmarva Aquatics. I�ve seen them mentioned here or the owner Skip Bason. �DelmarvaAquatics is the largest non-government producer of striped bass in the world, with a yearly production capacity in excess of 25 million, 5 day fry. Striped bass are of the Chesapeake-Delaware strains with most of the female brood stock in the 15 to 50 lb range.� They have most of the fish listed in my stocking plan and will air freight or truck delivery. I�m curious as to whether their yellow perch could possibly reach the size of those heavyweights Rainman and Cecil Baird produce?
Thanks for having the Pond Boss Forum with the wealth of information and interaction with the experts!
Thoughts?
Heppy

Delmarva told me early fall last year they weren't handling YP or SMB anymore. Don't know if that was a short term deal or what but Skip did tell me he was out-sourcing the SMB when he could get a hold of them.
I do know of a strong strain of YP I'm learning more about as we speak but the logistics of getting any to you would be impossible at this point. I have a gent in Nebraska and 1 in Ohio that are going to be trying this strain eventually and maybe we'll know more this fall on how that's all going to work out.
Wherever you get your fish, it's usually best to source fish from a very similar climate.

Snipe,
By any chance is the yellow perch a European strain aka Seminole Striped Yellow Perch? A supplier is in WVA. Can anyone verify the claims from their catalog in a pond? http://www.zettsfishhatchery.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/CompleteCatalog.pdf
Thanks!
Heppy

I can't verify anything about that but my 2 cents is it's marketing..
Yellow perch are also known in many parts as "ringed perch", hence the stripes (vertical barring).
Sometimes I tend to put my foot in my mouth but here goes... Under the FHM's for sale it says "REMEMBER!- Replace your minnows annually for healthy fish". That's not good advice IMHO, and it indicates to me a reach for sales.
If someone feels differently please correct me.
Heppy, I think the important part would be to find references from folks that have sourced fish here-from this supplier-have they had good luck? Do the fish attain good size (other factors there, I'll be careful), have they used them more than once..etc..

Snipe,
Agree with every comment you just stated. In reading older posts I saw that catmandoo (Ken) used Zetts as a source for fish. I�m not sure if he is still on here but am curious if he or anyone else was seeing 12-14� up to 16� YP from them. Hopefully someone reading this can provide some feedback.
Thanks!
Heppy

I recently picked up some 4.5" to 5.5" bluegills at Zetts in WVA. They have been doing well in my pond. There are some fish farms that do "fish day" deliveries to places in Virginia but they seem to mostly be small 1" -2" bluegills mostly.

Thanks nvcdl for letting me know the fish at Zetts are doing well! After searching older Pond Boss posts I found some really important information about using feed trained perch. I also found out through Linked in of all places that R & S Ranch Llc does live fish delivery nationwide! Who is R & S Ranch Llc you might ask? None other than Pond Bosses own Rainman. Something tells me I need to give him a call and find out if he will be in Virginia later this fall!

https://www.linkedin.com/company/r&s-ranch-llc

Thanks,
Heppy

I might be interested in getting more fish if they go - wouldn't mind adding some F1 Bass and more bluegill.

nvcdl,
I will let him know once I contact him. Would anyone else be interested in ordering fish from Rainman in Virginia?
Thanks!
Heppy

Here is a quote from R & S Ranch on Linked In �We are also expert in clearing water of suspended solids and live-deliver all species of fish nationwide.� Rainman is located in MO. A large enough order might make it worth the trip! I�ll be calling him next week so reply here by the end of next week.
Thanks!
Heppy

Heppy,

Did you ever find a good place to order fish from, for central VA? I'm south of Richmond and looking for fish also.
I did find these guys, but they seem a bit pricey. https://midatlanticstocking.com/
Thinking about driving up to Zetts but it's a long hike for me.

JohnR,
I’m assuming this is a new pond? I’ll share some thoughts on the business that you listed if you are looking at YP. Their website says that they will have 3-5” YP available in October. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong but the fish that I bought 11/1 or so were 4-6”. This leads me to believe that these YP might not be feed trained.

I haven’t ordered from Zett’s but they do mail fish depending on what size fish you want. Here is their catalog that lists packaging and shipment costs. They also will deliver by truck.

http://zettsfishhatchery.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/CompleteCatalog.pdf

I did drive this past fall with my dad to WV to get YP. This is the webpage.

http://www.rainbowheadfarms.com/home.html

Mike was the only one who had larger feed trained YP when I got the last 25 he would sell along with the 400 feed trained 4-6” YP. If you are looking to stock YP I would make sure that they are feed trained. This will allow your forage fish to multiply considerably (new pond) with the YP feeding mainly on pellets. I’m thinking of adding another 200 large YP this spring myself but not sure of the source that I am going to use along with 15lbs of additional fatheads. If you find other sources of feed trained YP please let me know.
If you are looking for other kinds of fish I would recommend http://www.seponds.com/schedule.php as I’m sure that they do fish truck stops near you.

Hope this helps!
Heppy