I have given up on getting blue catfish and will be stocking CC, along with RES and black crappie. The pond currently has fathead minnows and spotfin shiners only. My question is timing. I will only be adding 10 of each species, and I will stock the smallest size available from Jones (2-3" RES, 4-5" CC, and 3.5-5" crappie). Should I stock them all together or maybe add the RES next spring, the crappie a year later, and the CC the 3rd year? The pond was built in 2017 and still has very little plant life. Even the lotus is still struggling after 4 years. Any help is greatly appreciated. I have spawning structure for the CC. There seem to be lots of tiny fish in the pond.

Do you want spawning structure for the CC?

They are VERY efficient at putting on weight and growing, especially if you are feeding.

I think you would have much better management control of your small pond if you tried to prevent the CC from spawning and instead ladder stocked as they grew and you culled.

I asked a related question last year, and got about 3 pages of responses. Here is the link.

Other Species in a Channel Catfish Pond

Good luck on getting a good blend of fish going in your pond!

I want the CC to spawn. Only interested in species that can sustain a population. I do need to pull some SMB out of my 2nd pond. They have spawned well!

I'd do it at the same time. At those low numbers, I'm now wondering when will be the first time you might see any of them.

In a similar sized pond, I've put in higher numbers than 10/species and have really yet to affirmatively say I've seen one of the predator fish. I think I've maybe 75%+ seen some activity that I would say is the new predators, but not blatant. Certainly not like I expected to see.

In my 2nd pond which is 0.9 acres, I started off the lake chubsucker population with 12 fish, the SMB with 20 fish. and the GSH with 25 fish. These all produced good populations. Just don't want the CC to eat the RES or crappie before they get going, especially considering the limited cover.

You could certainly add them all at the same time, IF they were sized correctly!

However, my impression from reading Pond Boss is that the fish suppliers are having a difficult time keeping up with demand in selected species/sizes. There are many posts about people wanting X-inch sized fish of Y species, and their supplier not having any.

Perhaps the wiser course would be to find out what is available from your preferred supplier(s) for next spring. Post that stocking plan on the forum and see if the experts say that should probably work.

If that won't work, then alter your timing to make a plan that does work.

"The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray."

My experience with stocking lower than "standard" stocking numbers has been dismal. Especially if there is any sort of predator in the pond. As in the predators in the pond consumed ALL fry that were hatched in the pond, and only the stocked fish remained. Plus the stocked fish had poor body condition because there was not enough food in there to let them grow the way they should.

If the pond doesn't have the necessary cover in the pond for fish to hide in and reproduce (for ALL species) it will be a management nightmare and entail a LOT of hands on removal of fish.

I may try to add more dead spruce trees this winter for cover. Your post has prompted me to do this. Thanks!

Guess that I'll play it safe and only add the 10 RES next spring.

Based on recent Google maps update, pond is 0.48 acres. Newest pond is over 0.8 acres including attached wetland.

I suggest that if you put in spawning structure for the CC, ensure that it could be removed if you want.

IME spawning CC in the presence of LMB do not produce objectionable numbers. If your only predator is SMB, that might not be the case.

CC in sizes big enough to be safe from SMB predation are about the cheapest fish that size that you could add down the road, if you lack CC spawning and want to keep their numbers up. They are also pretty readily available.

Still waiting on adding any predators to my 3rd pond in the hopes that I can locate blues. I do not plan any SMB or LMB for this pond. I will likely add black crappie (against most experts advice) as an experiment to see if blue catfish can control them. I still have very few plants, so I recently added more dead spruce trees. My 4th pond leaks pretty bad, so I am thinking of trying warmouth in that one. My 1st pond is a LMB/BG pond, and my 2nd pond is a SMB/YP pond. Wanting to experiment with my 3rd and 4th ponds.

I have a pond about that size. I found that, in my case, the bluegills over spawned leading to an O2 crash. Catfish couldn’t control them. Over about 30 years, it has become a GSF pond. And, that’s how it will stay.