Fellow PB members....what do you think? I'm thinking about stocking a one acre pond with Redear, Yellow Perch, and Hybrid Striped Bass. That's it...just those three. Will it work? I have another pond with the traditional LMB, BG, CC stocking so I'm looking for something different. I'm in Northern Indiana if that's important. Originally I was going to have Black Crappie in that mix but thought they would probably compete directly with the Perch. I would consider substituing Crappie for the YP if there was a strong case that it would make for a better combination. Appreciate your input.
Isn’t Indiana a little too north for red ear? Or is that Cnbg that I was thinking about
You will need a forage fish for the HSB that lives in the same area that it does, I'd suggest Golden Shiners. I'd throw some RES in with the LMB in the other older pond too,
Pat, we are OK for RES up here, it's when you start moving up into Mi that the winters get too severe and Pumpkinseeds take their place. A local public lake has both RES and PS in it.
CNBG typically won't do well up here at all.
My guess is you will want a good way to control the YP numbers. HSB may do the trick, it likely depends on your pond size and cover makeup. Might need some additional fishing control to help them out.
I
You will need a forage fish for the HSB that lives in the same area that it does, I'd suggest Golden Shiners. I'd throw some RES in with the LMB too,
Pat, we are OK for RES up here, it's when you start moving up into Mi that the winters get too severe and Pumpkinseeds take their place. A local public lake has both RES and PS in it.
CNBG typically won't do well up here at all.
I'm thinking no LMB for the pond. Did you mean something else?
I
You will need a forage fish for the HSB that lives in the same area that it does, I'd suggest Golden Shiners. I'd throw some RES in with the LMB too,
Pat, we are OK for RES up here, it's when you start moving up into Mi that the winters get too severe and Pumpkinseeds take their place. A local public lake has both RES and PS in it.
CNBG typically won't do well up here at all.
I'm thinking no LMB for the pond. Did you mean something else?
That was for this pond: I'm thinking about stocking a one acre pond with Redear, Yellow Perch, and Hybrid Striped Bass.
The HSB live in the more central part of the pond, and don't typically look to the bottom of the pond for food like LMB do. That's why I suggested the GSH. They live in the same area of the pond as the HSB. If you are feeding the fish, having a fish that the HSB can eat isn't that big of a concern during the 50°F+ water temp days. BUT during the winter when you won't be feeding, they will feed on the GSH more than the YP or RES.
esshup....Could I use BC instead of LMB to get the same result? Really trying to avoid LMB. I know it's unconventional.
Think about using SMB rather than LMB.
My pond is doing well with SMB, HSB, RES, YP, and a bunch of dang bluegills.
I think esshup means to add the GSH in the new and older pond that contains the LMB. Maybe esshup will return and explain. I would for starters, stay with the Redear, Yellow Perch, and Hybrid Striped Bass, no other predators in the new 1 ac pond.
I have used just RES, YP and HSB in several clients ponds with good success. If and when the YP become too abundant just add a few more HSB. Actually when using HSB these fish should be periodically "ladder stocked" every 2-3 years to maintain a good variable size structure.
In a normal pond with weed control,,,, HSB will very adequately control the YP and RES. It is very doubtful that the RES will ever become over abundant with YP and HSB present. Adult YP as bottom oriented fish will eat small young of year RES who also tend to be bottom oriented fish. IMO some GSH and FHM would be a good soft rayed forage fishes to initially add to the RES, YP and HSB combo. As the pond ages consider adding some hybrid crappie if the GSH can maintain good forage fish numbers. The crappie need decent numbers of minnows as food items. YP after hatching inhabit mostly open water until the YP are around 1". Crappie might help control YP numbers. esshup (Hoosier Pond Pros) does sometimes have hybrid crappie in the spring early summer.
Thanks for the reply Bill. I assume since no one is commenting on regular Black Crappie, that means "don't go there"?
Augie....I would love to have SMB, just didn't think they would work in a relatively small pond with no moving water and no sand/gravel on the bottom.
[/quote]After the pond is several years old with a few regular ladder stocked HSB and IF minnows/shiners are able to maintain good natural numbers in the pond without minnow/shiner supplemental stockings then you could add regular black crappie. Crappie need ample food to grow. Having to add minnows each year means there are too many predators present for the current habitat conditions.
Regular crappie can be very prolific in some ponds. YOY crappie usually live several weeks in open water where HSB could noticeably reduce their density and minimize chance of overpopulation. This risk I would not take if hybrid crappie were available within 200 miles or by next day air UPS. One thing that I would do if you add crappie is to remove another panfish at a 1:1 ratio of panfish each new crappie. You need to make biomass room for an added new species rather than stocking more fish on top of the current carrying capacity. When one does that some specie or both species usually suffer in some way; usually its growth.
[quote] I would love to have SMB, just didn't think they would work in a relatively small pond with no moving water and no sand/gravel on the bottom.
SMB will thrive in a small pond as small as 0.2 ac. This summer I will be trying them in a 0.1 ac pond. Smb do not need moving water, nor cool water nor sand gravel bottom. I grew smallies to 18" in a 0.3 ac mud bottom pond. I could not stop them from spawning. SMB are poor predators of most types of sunfish.
See my PBoss mag 5 articles about growing SMB in ponds.
https://www.bassresource.com/fish_biology/growing-smallmouth.html
travism, take a look at Bill's write up in the link he provided. That article is "my pond Bible".. seriously, save the file, you will reference it frequently. I believe ewest contributed to that as well.
I found that article before I found PB, so when I got to communicate with the man himself, life was good from that point, on..
Bill has guided my way into a very prolific YP-SMB pond. Better than I ever imagined.
Bill, I was talking about the RES/YP/HSB pond. But if you say they will control the YP/RES, then I rescind my comment about adding GSH to that pond.
Augie....I would love to have SMB, just didn't think they would work in a relatively small pond with no moving water and no sand/gravel on the bottom.
Your pond is 3x the size of my pond. I have placed many tons of crushed limestone in the pond. SMB were stocked fall of '20.
I haven't seen evidence of recruitment, but the stockers are fat and happy.