Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Don't want to mess up a good thing but

I am in the position to buy a house that sits on a private 10 acre pond. I am very familiar with the pond and my future wife's father built the house.
The pond has YP,WC,LGMB,BG, and Pickeral.
This pond had huge bass and had produced a 9.5 lband huge crappie up to 2 lbs. Those are very big for NJ.
If I buy this house I would want to add channel cat and HSB.

I am afraid of destroying the current fishery.
What are good stocking rates for this situation?
I was thinking (in my uneducated opinion):
150 9-12" cc
400 7-9" HSB
10,000 GS (+ 3000 annual stcoking)
5,000 FHM (+ 2000 annual stocking)
50 adult BG

I am afraid that I would be over stocking forage and allowing LGMB and WC crappie to over populate
and stunt. I figure if that happens I could not stock forage for a while then the predators would consume the stunted fish.

Can some experts give me advice here. I am going to buy this house as long as there are not wetland restrictions on building additions. Also, it is common to find houses on small private ponds with existing fisheries and this must be a common scenerio.
Thanks.

That sounds like a great property to snag.

From my own position of near perfect ignorance (I know a thing or two which messes that up) I am hesitant to attempt comment on a lake of that size and existing complexity. The CC and HSB numbers do not sound excessive for 10 acres. You are planning on some initial and recurring stocking costs - how much time can you also put into managing the lake in the oncoming years?

Let's just say price no object just to open a dialogue. I do well and will be doing very well in a few years.

I don't want to stock fish so thin that I can't catch them either. As far a time for managing: I will be fishing it a few times a week to remover dinks. I will also put feeders out. I am hopeing that the HSB would still control WC even though they are on a feeding program. I will restock every year to create differnt year classes of CC and HSB.

You have given us a big chore on this question.

Here is something to think about as you plan and we try to help.

Basic biology. All ponds , be they 1/2 or 100 acres, have a biological limit to what they can produce (carrying capacity). In a natural setting it will be X pounds per acre. This can be increased by feeding and by having more fertile water (a managed pond), if managed properly. A managed ponds ability to sustain life may be X + Y pounds per acre. In a static pond , meaning one with no changes (either in a natural state or a managed state)studies indicate the carrying capacity is usually reached in 2 to 3 years. After that time it is all about how to manage the populations. In a pond that has reached natural equilibrium (capacity) you can't just add fish without very negative results. You will need to determine where you are wrt capacity. If near full you will need to remove fish , increase capacity if that is possible, and then try to get the stocking numbers right and it will have to be done in a time and manner so that the existing fish don't just increase reproduction to fill the gap.

Here is a common example. Take a LMB/BG pond 10 years old which is LMB crowded (many 8 -10 in LMB). A common idea is to add a bunch of BG or minnows or other forage to fatten up the LMB. If that is all that is done in 2 years the problem will be worse. You will have many more small LMB with less forage and the pond will be again at capacity with more of those fish. To work you have to take out LMB to balance the population below capacity. The more species the greater the interaction and complexity.

So, If I want to add 400 fish I must take out 400 fish?

So, If I want to add 400 fish I must take out 400 fish?

Start by assuming the pond is at it's carrying capacity.

If you want to add fish, you need to make ecological space for them. This doesn't just mean physical room - it means food and oxygen and water quality throughout the year to allow them everything they need to live. There are several ways to make that space.

1) Remove Current Fish: In the simplest example, if one wanted to add 400 lbs of LMB (say for "improved genetics"), one could remove 400 lbs of current bass.

2) Supplemental Feeding: This could be very pertinant for your CC and HSB, since they both readily take pelleted feed. You supply enough feed for the CC and HSB you add to live on. It's not quite that clean, because other fish (BG especially, perhaps YP, possibly even LMB or WCP) will eat some of the feed, and the CC and HSB will also eat natural food in the pond that other fish had previously been consuming.

3) Fertilizing: Not for everyone or for all locations. Many ponds in poor soil regions don't have enough nutrients occuring naturally in their water to grow the phytoplankton needed to support many fish. Fertilizing with the proper amount, at the proper time in these ponds can increase the phytoplanktn in the pond and hence the amount of animal life that can live there all up through the food chain.

4) Oxygen Management: Think aeration. Ensuring that all the fish you have (particularly when you increase the total mass of fish via 2 and 3 above) always have sufficient O2 to live. Remember - O2 to low for 15 minutes = dead fish.

5) Water Quality Management: Think aeration, possibly removing bottom water, possibly adding water from a well or stream. Maybe adding lime for alkalinity or removing cloudiness with gypsum or alum.

Combinations of these are frequently used. Lots of us worry about #4 and #5 seasonally.

Theo is doing OK here but I had to jump in. A 9 lb. bass can eat the CC and HSB you are contemplating stocking. As a matter of fact, when you first stock, expect to lose a bunch to large bass predation. Even a 5 lb. bass can eat a 9 inch CC.

mr. Basser, sounds like an awesome fishery, established as well as very complex for the novice PM.

if money were no object for me, mr. Lusk would be on a plane coming to my place.

my few cents for what its worth.

DIED makes a good point. If you don't have a good data base on the pond wrt sizes , numbers , year classes , RW , water quality and chemistry , etc. you should consider having a pro survey the pond and give you a report on how to do what you want. I would take such a report and post it here for additional feed back.

In addition if the shock boat is part of the survey you can use it to cull fish to make room for the additions.

Thanks guys.