Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Forage Question

I am looking for forage to stock in my private pond in Western North Carolina. My pond is 20 acres and is 65 feet deep at the spillway and averages 40-50 feet through the middle.

The pond is now 5 years old and is stocked with smallmouth, largemouth, and rainbow trout. We also stocked bluegill as our main forage and they have done great.

The trout and largemouth have done very well in this pond. The problem I have is with the smallmouth. They winter in depths that apparantly have little to no food and they come up in the spring very thin and in overall poor shape. Towards fall they will be fat and happy again.

I have tried fatheads for 3 years in a row. They do not last more than a few weeks. They are hearded up by the smallmouth, gorged on by the largemouth, and sucked down by the bream.

I would like to try threadfin shad but have not had any luck finding a producer in my area. Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do??

JABIII :

Welcome to the PB forum. It sounds like you have a nice lake to work with.

Do you have a water temp. profile and info on the lakes productivity (plankton bloom)? I ask because TS (threadfin shad) feed on plankton and have a low cold water tolerance (die off at 42 degrees). If you have trout that survive year round (indication of colder water) then you may have water to cold to support a year round TS population. If so you would need to stock them every year. That would be a big job for a 20 acre lake. There may be some other options which I will check on .In the meantime maybe others will join in with their opinions and you can read the link below on bluebacks and think about alewifes.

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=000411;p=1#000000

ewest, thanks for the reply and the welcome!

My pond is at 3000 feet and threadfin would almost certainly would have to be stocked each year due to low water temps. I have considered bluebacks (which I have a source for) but have been wary since reading of their egg predation in NC Wildlife journals.

I am in sort of a unique position with my depths and temps but still being located in the Southeast.

I imagine that small rainbow trout might be my best forage but the expense seems to be enormous.

JABIII :

You do have a unique situation. TS would work well if you can replace them every year ($$) as would RT but again $$. Golden shiners (GSh) are also egg eaters but they work in LMB ponds once established in #s. Gizzard shad (GS) will survive the cold and add forage but in my opinion have serious problems with size and worse with their ability to suppress other fish populations and in effect take over large % of lake biomass. I will check some more options. In a pond with lots of predators you may need help in suppressing their hatch. It may be easier to add LMB/SMB fingerlings to offset the loss than to keep buying lots of forage.

Thanks again and let me know if you come up with more options!

If you are not feeding the trout fish food, it is possible that you have too many predators in a pond that supports trout. Trout waters that are sustained by natural forage items are typically on the low end of fish biomass. Since the pond is 5 yrs old it is possible that the pond has had several successful bass spawns and there are too many predators for the amount of forge food items. Adding more forage items could easily result in producing more numbers of thin predators instead of producing a better quality of predators. Consider getting a professional fishery survey so a professional can assess the balance of the fishery.

Just found this post thanks to ewest. I do some work up that way if you want a second opinion. That is close to Ashvellie, right? You do have unique situation. No way would I spend good money on shad in that area, you would get little return on investment. You might instead of stocking need to look into other pond mgmt options to increase forage, such as supplemental feeding. Also you are in trout country and I think we could find you decent price on them since there are so many producers up that way. Good luck.

Thanks for the replies. I am currently supplementing with trout food. The SMB's don't start eating it until the water warms and then they will start showing up. I am about 30 miles South of Asheville and am interested in any info you may have. Thanks!