We have a 30 acre pond that is about to receive 15k Blue Gill and 400# Golden Shiners. I have read that placing the minnows in a spot away from the blue gills will deflect some predation away from the blue gill. The real question is: Is it helpful to spread these fish out over the lake or does it matter if they all go in in the same area? Thanks in advance for your help.

We have a 6 acre pond and we put them all in one spot and they hanged up and ran the perimeter of the pond before spreading out.... we had bass and they had a field day all the way around.... do you have predators?

We do have bass and crappie. Lake management folks tell me the minnows are mainly there to give the existing predators something to chase while the blue gill get established. "They" also say if there are enough golden shiners, they also have fair chance of becoming established in the lake. I have received two different opinions about whether to spread them out or not. Guess I am looking for some tie breakers. We are over in East Texas, Lufkin Thanks

We put in 50#\50# of fatheads and shiners and have bass /crappie and have shiners still. You are east of me about 100 miles or or less. Todd Overton stocked them

Use a boat and release groups of shiners in wide open water.

That is cool coincidence, Overton is bringing ours too. Mr. Overton is a nice guy to do business with

Snipe, thank you for the idea. Never thought of that. Put them in buckets you think?

Yes, if these are truck delivered stock then just temper to within 5 degs. and buckets are fine, or a big tank that can handle thousands at a time..
It's very much worth the time to do it this way, just don't have too many GSH in the same bucket/tank at 1 time and cause a low/lack of DO issue before you can dump them.

Todd or his hired hands will know how to acclimate and release them.

Welledge we are just 50 miles from you over in Pineland Texas. We also had Todd Overton's crew deliver all our fish! They certainly will know what to do. Welcome and good luck neighbor!!

When Overtons released my shiners /fatheads they were dumped in using a 4”pvc pipe and the fish hauled A all the way around the pond in probably 5mins, then I guess spread out from there

Thanks a lot folks for the answers and ideas. This is our first shot at stocking our 100 year old lake in over 20 years so it is is all new to me. Reading and research is absolutely a great tool, but sometimes there is no better info than experienced people. Thanks again. WE

Another vote for the crew at Overtons. Listen to them, they know what works the best. Yes, you will lose some to predation, but many more will escape.

Sorry for the lateness of this reply. If there are existing adult fish that can eat the new stockers then habituate the fish first. Do a search here for the topic. It makes a huge difference in survival.

https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthre...s=+habituation&Search=true#Post22246

https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthre...ds=habituation&Search=true#Post26019

Thanks ewest! A self taught newbie like me sure appreciates ideas like this, I would not have thought of this process. We do have some "complex cover" to release into but I will start looking at a way to block off a piece of water for the new fish.

You only have to protect the new fish for a couple of days.