Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Feeding your bait fish

Is there any advantage to feeding your FHM and GSH? I am still atleast 16 mo. away from stocking predators.

They will grow quicker.

They will be more nutritious for your predators to eat..

I am hoping the food makes them more fertile. I think most of these FHM should be dead by next year. The GSH getting bigger would be nice. They seem to be fairly aggressive eaters.

I don't think it will make them more fertile..

But, fish in better body condition and in better health will lay more eggs.

I only put 6-7 lbs of minnows in this spring. Now they are everywhere. I am just wondering what all these guys are going to eat. Is there that much zoo plankton to feed a large army of FHM. Next year after the FHM spawn the numbers will be incredible. I have a lot of natural places for them to lay their eggs, I thought some fallen logs brush piles and vegetation would be enough, but next year I will need to add structure to accommodate their population. I was told you will be able to walk across their backs but I thought it was more a figure of speech. On top of the FHM the GSH should have a significant spawn of their own. I read that each female will lay 200,000 eggs a season. With no predators I would think at least 10% would survive.

True, but will supplemental feeding baitfish be advantageous in the long term?

I am guessing that it won't be.

Correct. After a year or 2 at the most all the FHM will most likely be eaten, and the predators will be targeting GSH and panfish species. But, feeding the "baitfish" will then transfer the food to the predators.

It all depends on the goals for the pond, and the fish stocked.

I have a summer project I am prepping for now. Our farm has a small pond that has a V cut out of the dam either due to a shovel or lack of an overflow pipe. I am planning on fixing the dam and using this as a FHM breeding sanctuary. I was thinking I would drain it every fall and let it run into the larger pond.

I have been pricing out mini excavators to rent for the weekend to fix the dam and to dig out the bottom of the old pond. Does $350 seem like a reasonable rate? I probably know very little about pond construction, but after a few months on Pond Boss I feel like an expert. Luckily I am smart enough to realize I am an idiot. I will post pics of the before and after once the ground dries up enough for me to play in the dirt. It's amazing how addictive this pond management is. I think about my fish all day long.

Digging in the pond could lead too a leak.. If you break through the clay liner and hit a vein of sand the water could go bye bye relatively quickly or slowly leak down to the level of the leak and stop.. Kind of a iffy thing I need to do the same thing but I'm hesitant because I know there's sand when they drilled my well they hit sand at 11' and on house end of the pond it is really shallow and I'm wondering if this was done purposely do to sand when it was being built..

I would call this pond more of a glorified mud pit right now. It holds about a foot of water in the spring, but will dry up every summer due to the dam breach. I hope that the project turns out, but I am really not risking anything but equipment rental. I also told my dad I would bury his gutter drains, so we are splitting the cost of the rental. St. Louis is not that far from me, but I don't think we have issues with sand. I will dig up some clay outside of the pond to fix the dam just to be safe.