Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Newbie needs help - initial stocking

Found the website after buying a family member a subscription to the mag. What a great source of information.

Looking for a little information. A family member has a newly filled 2 acre pond with a max depth of 18-20 feet. We were looking to stock baitfish in the spring and then follow up with BG/LMB/Crappie and maybe look into perch/SMB/catfish. Any suggestions of how much/type of baitfish to put in? Also, when can we start stocking the other species? Do we have to put in all fry or can we mix in some larger fish?

The pond has two large areas of cover (large rock pile and large collection of stumps). It will also have a large dock added in the spring. It is fed from storm run-off from an adjacent hill and also has a small natural spring.

Any help would be appreciated (along with suggested vendors to use - the pond is in souther Scioto County in Ohio).

Thanks

First off, welcome.

Crappie are not recommended unless you have 20+ acre pond. If you do, you will probably have alot of pond management to do. For some folks thats ok and take the risk, but not really what alot of people want to do.

I have used fenders fish farm (near sugarcreek,OH) with good luck. But with any fish supplier, you go there knowing what you want, and don't be talked into anything else outside of your plan. So start figuring out what you want now, so by summer/fall you have a solid plan. Read up here on all the different possibilties you have, and there are many. The more reading you do here, the better you will begin to understand how it all works together, or not. Others will help you too. Good thing is that you found this site before any stocking and hopefully avoided costly mistakes.

Stock fathead minnows as soon as you have water. Papershell Crayfish is another alternative and would like the rocks you have. I orderd mine by mail. You will probably need to wait till spring on the crayfish.

Thanks for the reply.

Can we stock the minnows now, even with winter coming up?

I can only give you my novice opinions. There are very qualified people here to give you definate answers when the time comes.

The minnows will not reproduce until springtime. So some say there is no reason to do it now and wait. My thought is that if they are in there, they will get used to your pond and spawn at the first chance they get. If you wait, you might get busy in the spring and not get them in and miss a whole spawn. Get some areas ready for them to spawn.

You mention LMB and SMB. Read up on that. You most likely should decide on one or the other. Check this link out for good reading. http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=103428#Post103428

That leads to more questions. What kind of a fishery do you strive for? Balanced, or trophy sized fish of a particular kind. Will you have aeration? Will you feed? Does the pond have cover or structure in it? Does the pond have plant life? All these things will play a bearing on how to stock or what you might still need to do. Lots to learn....have fun with the journey, it's an exciting time for you.

I agree with fish n chips thoughts. You can stock FH now. If you wait you may not be able to get them in the spring. Other than that read up here on the type of fishery you want. Then you can finish the stocking plan.

Some of the fatheads will be pregnant now. The way things are going, it's looking like a fairly warm winter everywhere. More than likely it won't hurt to stock now. It will, at least, scratch the fish stocking itch.

Something that I feel worth mentioning on adding FHM that most novices (like myself) will not be aware of ( but is included with alot of past posts).... Sort thru them to make sure you aren't getting any non-wanted fish along with them. It is tempting to get the FHM from a very easy/local source (like the fish truck guy) and you end up with a bunch of bullheads or LMB in there that will really cause you grief down the road. If you don't know their reputation, I would sort thru them one by one and remove anything that doesn't seem right to you. Even with the vendor I mentioned above, I still sorted thru them handfull at a time to be sure there weren't any strays. Don't do this by your pond because it is easy to throw a suspicious fish the wrong way and in the pond it goes.

Good catch Fish n chips.

Thanks for all the helpful replies. I talked to Fender's yesterday and picked up a bunch of great information. I talked to my father-in-law last night and we started forming a plan.

First, we made an error in not putting enough cover in the shallow water for the forage fish/spawning. We need to gather up some brush piles/artificial cover/etc. and drop them in the pond. The only cover in there now is in 10+ feet of water. Before we can drop the new stuff in, we need to purchase a small jon boat. The grade on the sides of the pond is too steep to wade in. The one shallow area they want to preserve for swimming, so they do not want a bunch of structure cluttering it up. After we get that done, which should be by March at the latest, we are going to stock.

We plan on going directly to the hatchery (as opposed to local pickup at the truck). Hopefully, we can avoid some of the problems mentioned above about unwanted species.

A few questions on the stocking. We definitely want LMB and BG. We are going to pass on SMB (thanks for the article). Other interests are Black Crappie (although it was suggested above to avoid them - why?), Perch, ShellCrackers/Red-ear, Hybrid BG, and potentially cats. Any suggestions? For the cats, if we decide to do them, are channels or bullhead better? The goal is to have a more consistent fishery as opposed to having one dominant species that gets huge.

A few other pieces of information - the pond will be have a pellet feeder and a bottom aerator installed prior to the stocking.

Any information would be great.

Thanks guys.

scratch the question on the BC. I just read a post about them and the competition with the other small fish.

Before you stock predator fish (LMB) make sure that your forage base is established.

If the pond is not full now, you might want to reconsider tapering the banks a bit more. If you cannot walk into the pond with waders, how would a person get out if they fell into the pond, especially an older person or a young child? Especially if there was snow/ice on the ground.

Read up on stocking rates for the various fish. DIfferent stocking rates for various fishery goals. A pond is different than a lake, as it will continually want to go out of balance.

I would stock RES along with the BG, somewhere in the 25% ratio RES to BG. HBG won't spawn enough to make forage for the LMB, so in you pond they would be considered a fish that will grow fast for the first few years until the BG catch up.

YP can be stocked and might establish in the pond with the LMB. Even if they don't establish, they will provide some good eating until the LMB wipe them out.

CC if caught and released are very hard to re-catch. They are cheap to re-stock, but they aren't mandatory in a pond. I woudn't stock BH.

Stock the forage fish or stock the main fish?

If it was my set up this is how I would do it ( unfortunatley I had to introduce predators to soon to try and keep unwanted fish under control. I probably will always be troubled by this. But hey, I'm up to challenges.)

I would stock the FHM now. As far as spawning habitat for the FHM, just put a few pallets along the shoreline with a concrete block on them. Then your set to go. No need for dense cover for them until you get predators in their. The rest of it could wait to get done over the next few months. If it does ice over to walk on, you could set up stuff on the ice to sink when it thaws, no need for a boat then.

Let that brew for as long as you can (hopefully at least six months)and then add your main fish.


--- In regards to CC and bullheads, I would go with CC. But there is alot to be said about whether they are good/bad.

Good suggestion on the pallets. And yes, safety should always be considered. I may have given the wrong impression. There is a "rim" of 5-10 feet that is only ankle deep. After moving out those first 5-10 feet from the bank it drops off pretty fast. I could wade out and place the structure, but I just think I can do a better job of hitting the full 2-6 foot column from boat.

After talking to the hatchery, it appeared that we could stock the FHM and the other fish all at the same time. All of the fish stocked are going to be 2-4". We won't be adding any larger predator fish (if at all) until we start seeing some 10-12" LMB. I was hoping that based on the small size of the predator fish, and considering the fact that a feeder will be used, that we wouldn't have an issue with the FHM population getting wiped out.

I am currently doing a 3 acre BC, CNBG, RES, CC, LMB pond. The BC from what I see is something I believe that can be done (becaue it has been), but I believe it will take work to manage closer to keep them from over populating. Here is a video you might find interesting.

Well......consider these two things.

1) fish hatcheries want to sell fish. Not always in your best interest. They are good people, but it is their job. The folks here have no investment/gain in your pond. They are giving you advice from past experiences.

2) At this same above hatchery, the first visit I made there, I was asking about different things. The guy went over to the LMB tank and pulled out a small one, about 1.5 long". He brought it over to the FHM tank and dropped it in where the FHM were about the same size as the LMB. The LMB instantly grabbed one and swallowed it down half way. It proceded to swim around the tank with that hanging out of his mouth for awhile till it was gone. That was a sight I will always remember as far as how agressive the LMB will be.

So, if you put in LMB 2-4", my guess is they will wipe out your FHM in no time. Granted the FHM will get wiped out eventually, but you want so many FHM in your pond that they will survive at least a summer. A statistic that is used often here is that it takes 10# of FHM for a single LMB to gain one pound. How many FHM do you want to buy to grow your LMB?... 1# now will become mega pounds quickly without competition. Why buy mega pounds? Patience is a virtue.





LMB are predators, so when you see them 10-12" you got them.....

Edit; So, if you put in LMB 2-4", my guess is they will wipe out your FHM in no time. ...If you stock the FHM with them in the initial stocking.

Thanks for the video Tums. I am not sure if we are going to have the traffic to consistently help cull the BC population so we might just pass on that (as fun as they are to catch).

Thanks fish n chips. Yes, I should have expected that answer. I have caught 3" bass on 5" crank baits so it makes sense. I was just hoping that a good system of pellet feeding would deter some of that. It is just so hard to be patient. We will have to discuss this. I get your point on the 10-12" already being predators. I was referring to the potential of buying a few nice 3+ pound bass once we see some decent growth attained by the initial stocking. Once again, the answer is probably patience.

Check this link out for growth rates. Of course we do not live in the south and can't have these type of bass, but it is a recent post that I recalled seeing. A big factor to growth rates is having the proper forage for them to eat, and enough of it.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=314690#Post314690