Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Tooooo many stockers?????

I have a brand new pond that, by my guestimation, is about five acres.
A small creek feeds it. It is filling up now, so I called a local fish farm for stocking recommendations. Here is what they said.

Channel Cats = 5000
Beam = 5000
Sterile Grass Carp = 25
LM Bass = 700

This sounds like a LOT more fish than I was planning on. The pond is about 10-12 ft deep at the dam, but I’d guess that the average is going to be about 5’.

Does this sound like too many fishies to y’all? I was figuring maybe 1/10 this amount.
This is located in West Central Georgia.

Yeah, that's a lot of fish.

Numbers for individual species might be OK, depending upon what your goals and individual pond situation are. I believe the sum total is too high, regardless of what you want to emphasize. (Not truly horrible to the point of being dangerous, but too high nonetheless.)

Some questions before we put any exact stocking numbers/timing down:

1) What are your goals for the pond? Trophy bass, lots of catfish to eat, big bream pond, combination thereof, or something else?

2) How full is the pond right now?

3) Do you know what fish species are in the feeder creek? If not, can you find out?

4) How sure are you of the 5 acre total? Most of us are pretty bad at eyeballing, although eyeball estimates from some experienced pond builders/managers I would trust to be within 10%. If you're not very sure, you may want to consider getting a better figure, via satellite photo, GPS survey, or plotting with the aid of a long tape measure and a friend.

5) Do you know what level of vegetation problems similarly sized ponds near you might have? This woud have a bearing on the number of GC you would want to start with.

Welcome Niner to posting. Theo is right with the goals/questions. Do you intend on feeding (supp.) the fish. and in ponds like yours (stream effected) do you have constant water flow through and or a plankton bloom (fertility)?

Hello Niner,

Theo and Ewest is right. For most of the fish recommended this is the maximum you would put in a pond and you would need to feed, and or fertilize and fish it. The main problem we are finding is people with ponds not removing any fish from them. 700 largemouth bass is to many for a 5 acre pond considering you will need to start taking some out after 2 years anyway. However, 25 grass carp I feel is not enough if there is any possibility of needing to control weeds in the next couple of years. We recommend a minimum of 10 per acre. You could get 3-5 inches to put in a new pond for $2.00 each rather than paying considerably more for 8-10 inch grass carp. This could save you some money in the long run. Think about what you want to get out of the pond and talk to more than 1 fish dealer. Everyone has their opinions use those and draw you own conclusion.