Ok, i have got the fish ordered and wanted the opions of those of you that have been there, done that.

10 Acres, 15' average depth
all the cover, sturcture you could want.
Goal is big Large mouth bass.

ordered 6000 Bluegill with 15% Redear. 500 Hybrid BG, 60 LB fatheads.

I think everyone is going to say more BG. Due to the size of my pond to stock at 1500/acre is really expensive.

So my plan is to let these "stew' for a year and add the Large mouth this time in 2015 at 50-70/acre.

my hope is that with no predators i will have amaizing survival rates from spawn and my forage will be more than great for an enviroment to grow big Lagemouth.

what do you think?
any other forage you would add while no predators are present?

Oh, plan of feeding BG and sinking fish food for fatheads all year. Working with a reputable fish supplier and these are based on his recamendations.

Thanks,

I would definitely skip stocking the HBG and just replace them with pure BG. I'd only stock 10 pounds of FHM and take that money to stock even more BG.

I would use some of the freed up FHM money and stocked 5 pounds of GSH as well. I would also look at stocking some crayfish.

Thanks CJB. seems you prefer the GSH as well or better than the Fathead. can i ask why? would you stock both at higher rates if $$ wern;t such a concern?

i like the creyfish idea but the supplier said he wouldn't have them until later in the year, so i will try to stock some when they are available prior to the bass intro.

I think i do agree with you to drop the HBG for regular BG.

Anyway, appreciate the info and i still have some time to change the order up a bit before delivery on Saturday.


Thanks again.

You don't need many FHM to get your bass off to a good start. Just 10 pounds will multiple quite a bit and be more than enough. But, no matter how many pounds you stock, they'll be long gone 2-3 years down the road. Now the GSH on the other hand, they can create a a varied forage piece years down the road as they can handle LMB predation, even heavy bass predation with the correct pond conditions.

Ditto what CJ said.

Make sure you have plenty of rocks in <8' of water for the crayfish to hide between, or the LMB will eat them all.

I'd only go with 40-50 LMB per surface acre due to the reduced numbers of BG stockers. Even if waiting a year to stock the LMB.

If possible apply now for a depredation permit for Cormorants. If any show up, make sure that they aren't welcome asap.

Don't just throw the fish in the pond. Try and inspect them all, especially the FHM to ensure you aren't getting any bonus fish. i.e. Common Carp, Bullheads, etc.

Guys, thanks for the input. got the fish delivered on Saturday. Had to look up what a Cormorant was, man those things look like they could do some damage to a forge base. Thanks for the heads-up on that one.

I'm definatly gonna keep the LMB #'s down and looking to add some creyfish later on in the year. Also currently looking for some GSH to add in now. I did forgo the HBG for regular BG.

Used Wallace Fish farm, and was happy with the fish, didn't see any dead BG and saw just a few casualities in the minnows. didn't look at evey fish but tried to inspect as many as i could, didn't see any other species. Wish i could afford two of three times that many but the wife says my pockets are getting pretty shallow on this venture.

my fishing plans for the summer now invole trying to catch as many mature BG as possible to add to the pond. thats a bonus for the kiddos also.

Do you think i will get a spawn this summer from the BG. i would say average size stocked was 2 - 2.5".

Thanks again for the help.

How about stocking some freshwater grass shrimp while your at it to get a real diversified forage base for all size class and species.

Haven't looked into the grass shimp, will start doing some research. Have you had good experiences with them?

Ditto what Mac15 said on Cormorants. I had them over the winter and they took out a lot of my adult BG. Got the predation permit too late. Still I took out 16 of them. 16 Cormorant can do a LOT of damage to your fish stock. In Texas the predation permit allows not only you but anyone you name on the permit to take them out.

I have used Wallace Fish farm for years. Charlie is a great guy!!!

You should get a spawn. Charles put mine in last late March in about a third full pond and by late fall I had some fresh 2" BG along with a lot of smaller ones. If you will give them some supplemental feed, that will help. At least that is what Charles told me and It worked for me. I think they can reach spawning maturity at about 3" if there are no other large BG around to cause a maturity delay. It is my understanding that if you have large BG the smaller ones will delay sexual maturity and put their energy in growth instead of reproduction organs. Natures way of managing populations I guess.