Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Is my quest for private Esox unrealistic?

My current plan, should DEC allow me to dig in my own dirt, is for a roughly 5 acre pond. I'm looking at about 360'X600' with a max depth of 18'. The pond will be fed by about 1000' of drain tile through fields that are soggy year round barring a drought.

Smith Creek is not far from me so I'm most likely going to use them for everything I can unless I can find a better supplier.

My plan is crayfish, shiner, and fatheads for the first year, maybe 2 depending on how the initial population takes hold.

Step 2 is yellow perch.

Step 3 is walleye that will hopefully spawn... only had walleye once but they are sooo tastey!

Step 4 depends on if the walleye spawn. If they won't spawn, I will stop there and restock walleye to keep control of the pond and still be able to feast... If the walleye spawn, I will stock about 10 muskie for crowd control.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

Walleye spawning successfully in your pond even without predation from sunfish and bass is unlikely. It is likely 10 musky in 5 acres would lead to there being 10 very well fed musky initially, then starving musky, few to no walleye and few YP in just a handful of years...

Walleye will work well for your plans. Just don't plan on them spawning. If you get very limited spawning, it will be on the downwind shoreline that has lots of cobble sized rocks from surface down to 5-7ft deep. Limited spawning does happen in ponds with good walleye habitat and good conditions. The cobble lined shoreline is important for walleye egg hatching that takes fairly long in cold spring water temperatures (usu 40-48F). Water also needs to be reasonally silt free with visibilities of 3-6ft.

Actually, you don't want the walleye spawning so you have good control of the number of predators. Have too many predators, take some out, not enough add some. Actually this is the best management option. With adult walleye present plan that the restocking size should be 6"-10" for best survival of stockers. Stocker walleye are not that expensive considering that you don't need to stock very many 6"-8" fish per acre every 2-3 yrs. As usual it all depends.