Hi we are stocking a new 1 ish acre pond sometime the spring or early summer. We are going to put forage fish in first and want to get bass and cats in as SOON as possible so we want to know how long to just have forage in the pond. People recommend a couple months to a year but we want to know if we can expediate that process. We are willing to spend the money to make it happen. Can we just put more forage in? Let's say double the bluegill population?, etc.

You can expedite things by adding advanced size forage fish. For example, you can stock 2-inch BG at regular numbers and also stock adult BG to jump start BG reproduction. IMO you need to create the right size structure (not just dump in double the amount of 2 in BG) to sustain the forage population. Not sure what your forage options are in your location. You need an adult sustaining forage base to move forward. Using this approach also allows you to stock advanced size predators but the numbers need to mesh. Feeding will speed thing up also.

What is the fishery goal for the pond?

@ewest okay thank you that is helpful.

@esshup
The goal is a couple trophy size florida bass and backed up with those solid 4-5 pound northern largemouths. I know this is kidve a stretch for this size pond but we are more than open to supplementel stocking of forage fish.

Cuda, we all understand the desire to speed things up, but if you really want some trophy fish, you'll want your pond packed with ALL age groups of forage fish meaning that you will have wanted them to have spawned multiple times BEFORE adding the first predator fish.

If you could wait a year after stocking forage, AND you were feeding fish feed, you would have adult Bluegill in the 6-8"+ size plus multiple size classes below that. The adult bluegill would generally grow to where they would be beyond predation by the LMB, and thus would continue to spawn while the other size classes would be eaten following the growth of the LMB.

With more money, you could certainly stock more fish, but I wonder if you could really make up for a years worth of spawning without predation.

No matter which you chose, it will be fun and interesting.

Greg Grimes has had fantastic results stocking 3,000 BG and 50 LMB per acre. I would tag or fin clip the stocked LMB. That way you can keep track of the ones you stocked once they spawn and you get a few years down the road. You will need to stock a bunch of forage fish annually OR buy feed trained fish and set up a daily feeding program. (That will be cheaper than annually adding forage fish).

If you start with 50 LMB, they have to eat 500# of forage fish for each of them to gain one pound. A LMB likes to eat fish that are 1/4-1/3 it's body length.

Here's some math for you.

1"-2.5" BG are 4#-11# per 1,000 fish
2.5"-3.5" fish are 11#-24#/1,000
3.5"-4.25" fish are 25#-44#/1,000
4.25"-4.5" fish are 45#-59#/1,000
4.5"-5.5" fish are 60#-99#/1,000
5.5"-6" fish are 100#/1,000

Since a pond's health is all about water quality, and a pond without intensive management but with feeding and aeration can't support more than about 1,000# fish per acre. Count all the sizes of fish you have to have in the pond and the quantity of those fish to have the LMB grow big and you can see what the challenge is.

@sunil

Thank you that is helpful information, the hatchery says they can hook me up with 3 bluegill size classes. 1-3 in, 3-5in, and 6in+. My hope is that stocking a bunch of bluegill in these different classes can make up at least some time.

@esshup

Thats an interesting point about how many fish the pond can support. Helpful information and definitely some points to think about.

This sounds good. It's probably a good idea to try and understand what the true time separation would be in birth dates for those size categories of fish they have. It may not matter at all, but your would want to avoid just getting those size ranges of fish with only a few months of actual birth separation. Whenever possible, as a general rule, avoid stocking 'runt' fish.

Lusk: Re small fish stocking. With predators present, 95% of the eggs laid and hatched, only about 5% live to see their first birthday. Why? They get eaten. Take that into your plans when stocking.

What’s a predator? Anything bigger than the prey.

Do we know how long Greg was waiting between the initial BG stocking and LMB stocking?

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That is a newer southern pond stocking method for good bass growth and is using 2 inch fish

Also once the forage base is established looking at stocking tilapia for the warm water months.

@sunil
very good point I'll have to find out the age of the bluegill before I purchase, definitely don't want runt fish.

Thank you everyone for these helpful points to think about. We are looking at stocking adult bass going along with the expediating the process trend. How many adult bass is too many too stock in a new pond? I thought maybe 15 would be good but I'm not sure.

For your goal and 1 acre 10-15 1lb LMB is enough to start. First be sure you have adult forage (#s of BG 5-7 inches) and make sure you have both male and female LMB.

I'm not sure, but I believe that if you do enough searching here on the forum Greg has the info on here. Look back 8-14 years.

We have stocked Fatheads and Golden Shiners in a pond in October. Then come back in late April and stock the 2.5"-3.5" BG & RES, and 3" LMB. In September the LMB were 10"-12" long.