Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations When to start stocking?

Ok I am just about done putting structure in. Lake has about 2' of water in it from about 2.5" of rain. Well will be supplementing that water within two weeks. Is it to early to put fatheads in already? Also, what caused the green algae looking stuff? It wasn't there before I put the PVC trees in on Saturday and we had another rain?

Billy, never too early to add fatties!!!

Thanks for the reply. Kind of what I was thinking but man that water looks like it wouldn't support any life!

Billy, I've often said that I believe fatheads could live and thrive in a nuclear waste dump. Or at least survive. The minnows will provide a certain level of mosquito control.

Rambling thoughts here: That said, I think I would wait until you have pumped in the new water. Then have it tested. I really expect the well water is OK. Maybe it doesn't matter since it is your main source anyway. How's that for decisiveness?

I think the smartest route is to fill the pond and wait a couple of weeks.

Lol, yea Dave you kind of went all over the ballpark for me there! I think I'll wait till there is a bit more water in the lake. Heck I'm not even sure who has a supply of forage fish down in the valley? Guess I need to do some research on that first. Any suggestions? Btw, as a disclaimer, I am NOT the final word on this lake. We have a biologist working with us on the project. I am merely the facilitator who suggests things. Fortunately they don't listen to everything I suggest!

Bringing this back to the top. We stocked 2000 1-3" copper nose blue gill and red ear sunfish combination and 6000 fathead minnows. My questions now are is it a viable option to somehow jump start the process on getting bigger lmb in the lake and if so how would we go about it. We would like to be fishing for bass this summer and I realize that it might cost a lot more but is it even an option? Just for background, the lake is right at 2 acres with a maximum depth of 18'.

I'm no expert (or anywhere close for that matter) but if you just stocked the forage fish I would wait till the fall to put my bass in to allow them to spawn first.

If you stock larger LMB, they will be able to eat your forage base, which is the CNBG. That's a good recipe for a LMB stunted pond, exactly the opposite of what your pond goals are.

Can you not stock larger and more forage fish before stocking adult lmb?

Yes you can, it all depends on the depths of your pocketbook. But, before you stock adult LMB, do some more research. Sometimes they don't fare well - it seems that they get used to one BOW and might not do so well once transferred to another BOW.

Billy, an often tossed around factoid is that bass need forage that is between 1/4 and 1/3 its body length. It's a matter of calories received vs energy expended to catch that small morsel.

Yeah, you could dump in a lot of large BG for the bass. However, at some point, you then have to worry about the biomass that somehow is supposed to top out at 100 pounds per acre of all fish in the pond. Go over that and you just might be looking at a dissolved oxygen crash. Those aren't pretty and my "experiments" have resulted in several of them. The bigger fish always seem to die first when you push that button.

Let me backtrack for a minute on the BG. Some of us are finding that the 1,000 baby BG per acre number is woefully short when bass use them for breakfast. If it were me, and it's not, I would either double that or wait longer to introduce predators.

If I just couldn't wait, I would go with feed trained bass, a Sweeney feeder and largemouth pellets the size of your thumb.

After all of that dancing around, I think it is doable. I would double the amount of BG, add feed trained bass with largemouth feeders and several BG feeders plus copious aeration. Don't forget redears for the snails and maybe tilapia. The kicker on the tilapia is that they don't cooperate and die off in the valley when the temps drop. With aeration, that probably won't be a big deal. Monitor everything carefully and tell the owner to keep his checkbook handy. Sounds like he is money whipping this deal anyway.

Thanks so much for the replies. I'll pass along the information and let y'all know what we decide. I do believe that since we are in this thing for the long haul we might need to reconsider and do this thing the right way and just enjoy growing fingerling bass for a year or two. Thanks, Billy

You can ladder the fish but it requires stocking some forage fish that are to big for the predators to eat (ie 6+ inch BG).

Back to the top again. Bob if you read this forgive me. I was writing as fast as I could but didn't get all the info down! So I'm thinking our plan is to add Tilapia as an additional forage base to prevent the growing population of existing forage to continue to expand and then add the mature bass. So what would you recommend we add, poundage wise for both the Tilapia and the bass? Also looking into the addition of an aeration system. Thanks in advance for your replies.

Hopefully my pictures show up!

Nice BOW and wow, huge lovely lodge!. Definitely don't want my wife to see that. She already has visions of turning our 1900 era barn into a cabin.

I stocked our new pond with 2-3" BG and FHM in March of 13, then put fingerling LMB and CC in the late fall. By the time the predators were stocked we had a pond full of FHM and some YOY BG in the 2" range. Not a lot of that size, because likely only a few of the most mature fish spawned very early in the summer. But lots and lots of 1" BG fish. We did supplemental feed the BG and FHM, even grinding up pellets and feeding the tiny fry around the edges of the pond. I think that helped speed up progress.

So from my experience, even giving those BG and FHM a half year head start can make a lot of difference in what is out there for forage for the fingerling predators. Not only the fish forage, but the pond really came along with the other resident critters like dragon fly larvae, frogs and tadpoles, etc. etc. Have some FA now around the edge of the pond and it is literally teaming with life. All sorts of tiny worms, snails, larva of different types. All this in just over a year from stocking the first fish. We stocked the FHM and BG when the pond was still filling and had not reached full pool yet, but we had wheat planted in the bottom and got lots of algae from the very beginning.

Just to let you know what we did and the results, so you have the information to use as you think best if it applies in your situation.

OK, I'm not about to step in where Mama Lusks little boy Bob has been treading but am curious. Did you dye the water or is that natural?

Dave that is the natural color. Hard to believe. It is straight well water feeding it.