Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Question about HSB

We have a 3 acre pond at my work that has a large population of gizzard shad a good population of small BG, a good to large population of crappie and a good number of LMB as well as Channels and Carp. This pond has been stocked yearly with trout for many years but of course they die in the hot summer. We were thinking of experimenting with HSB, maybe 30 or so. The guy who ordered our fish called 2 different distributors to ask about getting HSB. the first guy said he had them but advised against them. He said he put about 800 small HSB in an 8 acre pond and they took over the pond, eating all the other fish. I thought that it may have been due to a high stocking rate but when he called a second distributor he was told something similar. that if we put in HSB, they are such voracious eaters that they will destroy all the other resident fish populations and that it will take 6-8 years for the fishery to recover. i just wondered if any of you had similar or different experiences with HSB in your ponds. It would be interesting to have a "different" kind of fish in our pond but not at the expense of the other fish.

Sounds like a fantasy land to me... HSB are hungry feeders, but will hardly eat your pond to nothing! They will help control the gshad to some extent. I believe from your past posts you all don't plan to feed so they will prey more on your fish population than those that are pellet fed. If you're looking for something different, I don't see any reason not to stock them.... You will have to get larger sized fish or they will just become expensive bass feed. I would say at least 8"+ but I would shoot for 12"+ if possible. 30 HSB a year that are not being fed pellets would be a very healthy stocking rate IMO.

I know of stories in cali where pure stripers have destroyed fisheries but I haven't heard of HSB doing that.

I think the stories about pure striped bass destroying a fishery has been scientifically proven a wive's tale... Fisherman swear they eat black bass and panfish and destroy everything. Time after time when studies are done, they prove that pure striped bass fed something like 98% of the time on gizzard shad, threadfin shad and alewife. Perhaps they compete with black bass for food resources, but striped bass are open water species and black bass are not, so I doubt this is even the case...

Thanks for the responses. Does anyone have experience with similar stocking rates in their own ponds?

Also as a general rule of thumb is there any info out there that tells the avg. amount of prey consumed by different sportfish. i.e. LMB eat 10 lbs of baitfish per pound of bodywiegt per year or whatever the case may be.

I have put a total of about 30-40 HSB in my pond over the past 3 or 4 years. They were about 15" plus when I stocked them.

They coexist in my pond with:

SMB
LMB
Yellow Perch
Blue Gill
Walleye
Black Crappie
Rock Bass
Grass Carp
Some Channel Cats
Bullhead
Suckers/Shiners/Fatheads and other rough fish
Occasional Trout

HSB have pretty small mouths. Some of those HSB are 20-22" now, and I doubt they could even eat a 10" fish.

The pure striped bass have a much larger mouth and could eat larger fish, in my opinion.

I'm sold on the HSB.

Hi Sunil - can you tell us how your walleye are doing and remind me of the size of your pond? Think WE are targetting your YP, minnow species and probably hammering the bullheads? Have you ever checked their diets? Also interested how the SMB are competing with the LMB. If you are compelled to share this info, PLEASE DO!

I vote Sunil's pond as the most interesting... I like diversity and diversity it is, plus he grows some darn nice sized fish in it too...

I forgot to answer TJ's question. The walleye are existing, but I wouldn't say they are thriving. I put in about (20) around 2-3 years ago. They were about 12-14" long.

Over the past year or two, I've caught three and my bro has caught one. They are maybe 16" and not very fat which is odd because I have a lot of forage in my pond.

When I first got the pond about eleven years back, it was LMB/BG/Bullhead/Crappie/Yellow Perch.

I started with SMB stocking around '03/'04 with the last stocking of SMB in '05. The '05 SMB were 2 lbs. each and I stocked about (55).

Somewhere in the past five years or so, we noticed a considerable drop off in the LMB fishing. Not as many bigger LMB and overall less LMB too. I think this was mainly due to human poaching.

The SMB are surviving and reproducing, and we do get recruitment.

I'm also seeing some larger LMB also.

In the end, I know I will have to stock more SMB and I will be looking at getting 6" or so SMB from Harltleys. I may use ewest's blocking net method, or have my fish guy grow them out a few inches at his place.

Due to little kids, I don't spend as much time at my pond recently. If I was there more, I'd be doing LMB culling to keep their population in check.

Regarding what's in the fish's stomachs, you have to understand that I really don't even like handling fish; I don't mind lipping them which worked for every fish in my pond until I put in walleye and trout. I don't even touch a bullhead when I catch one. I just grab the hook with the pliers and carry the bullhead over to the base of a tree and shake him loose to get eaten by some animal. So cleaning fish is out for me!

Pond is 6-7 acres.

Any idea what the maximum depth of the pond is? Walleye are weird, they seem to either do really well in a pond or just don't grow. Maybe Dave has some ideas on that... I know the VDGIF has stopped stocking walleye in many of the lakes they used because of low growth rate and return to creel %. You didn't stock them in high numbers either, which makes it even more strange their growth rate isn't better... If the water temp and DO levels stay in the right range for trout, I am betting a couple of you stocked trout would break your rod they are so big now.

The max depth is around 15' now with 2' of muck under it.

My trout either die or get fished out. It's not that there are not cooler water refuges for the trout. My fish guy said that trout are relatively dumb and won't seek out the better places to be.

Also, keep in mind that any fish could freely swim in and out of my pond at any time by going into the stream.

Thanks Sunil - I'm glad you shared that. Sounds like a really diverse lake! I'm especially interested in your efforts to cull fish as I am not much of a fish eater but realize culling will be part of the plan and would hate to waste the resource.

I wish I knew you better as your reluctance to touch bullheads leaves you somewhat comically exposed - something I'm really familiar with. Alas, I'll have to leave that to other parties!

I am really interested in everyone's little slices of heaven, to learn the impetus for their projects, their origins, the decisions they had to make when a fork came, which way they went, why, was it wise....

I think a pond survey would be really cool - posing certain questions to learn all we can of each other's watersheds - their unique qualities, challenges, etc. - then map them out.

JHAP doesn't really work until next April - this sounds like a terrific project for the two of us??