Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Best sources for fish

I have a nice but small pond but well stocked with reproducing minnows. As of now I have a dozen catfish and maybe 50 Black Crappie. They are doing great and growing as I pellet feed and minnow feed daily. The Crappie and Cats eat pellets and act like piranha when I pour a bucket full of minnows in. I trap them from a bold creek across the road. The pond is spring fed and good water.
I would like to add HSB, YP, and We.
Thoughts and good sources please. I am a new guy and just joined yesterday. I have a few other ponds all on a creek that starts in the mountain behind my house, drinking water and Cold. I have rainbow's up over 12 pounds stocked that my Grandson and I caught and have fed well. I very much appreciate any advice. I want quality fish.
Thanks Mike

Old Wood, welcome from a fellow Virginian.

What do you consider a small pond? How deep is it? How long has the crappie catfish combination been in there for?

Hello Cj,
Thank you for getting back to me.
This pond is only 6' in the deep areas. It is 1/4 to 1/3 acre. I do have good minnows. In fact I am going to post a picture to ID. The crappie and catfish have been there a year at most. We add every time we go fishing. I have quit now though until better informed.
This is my frog pond, stagnate but spring fed. Lots of pollywogs too. It has a few islands and good cover also crayfish as I catch those as well. Everything I have put in there has been caught local. We are right on the New river.
Mike

Hey Mike welcome to the PBF!

If you have been doing any reading out here you know by now that what and how you are doing things may and I say may not be the best way to do them.....

Lets go over a few of them.

1. 2 predator fish in a small pond is usually not a good thing to do. As there is not enough food to go around for both, but you do feed them so that's good.

2. Crappie in a small pond are HARD to manage let alone in a pond that maybe a little over a 1/4 acre or so. Your headed down a path that going to have a bunch of 4 to 6 inch crappie before to long unless you manage it VERY WELL!!

3. Catching fish from other ponds or rivers and moving them don't always work out the best when it comes to long term stocking goals for your pond. You can throw a pond waaaaay out of whack in a hurry by catching a few larger fish and just throwing them in your pond, but hey there your ponds so you can do it if you want to.

Everyone wants quality fish doesn't matter if they are 3 pounds or 13 pounds quality is always key! But you may have a hard time getting that quality the way your going about stocking. Only time will tell.

Good Luck,
RC

Thank you for the good advice. My thinking may be way off. My thoughts were just a natural pond with a good balance. Not a fish farm. We do fish it and the Crappie I caught were huge. I do like to eat Walleye and Perch. The Hybrid Stripers were just from some I read here. I do feed my fish manual every day. Pellets and minnows.Pellets at lunch and minnows end of every day as I run four traps. My fish EAT WELL! My Trout ponds have done real well even ignorant as all healthy and based on the 12 1/2 pounder I caught and weighed I would guess my biggest about 16 lbs. Good mountain spring water, cold, unreal color on my Rainbows, and lots of good food.
I really want Walleye and Perch for eating and Stripers for fun.
Mike

The reason I am asking is I am ignorant and I am looking for good advice. I am determined to put Perch, and Walleye in there and work it out, Stripers?
The last day we fished we caught lunker Crappie, we call them Calicos, and one big Horny Head. I have seen some 16" catfish recent and they were small when caught and stocked. Something's going right isn't it?

Yes sounds like your going good for now...... like I said only time will tell on the crappie. Initial stocking I would guess will be nice size it's 2 years from now that you may have issues.

Do you plan on putting these WE and Perch in this same pond with the CC and crappie?? If so not sure how that will turn out for you. Having all those predator fish in that small of a pond should be interesting to say the least. It won't go well your setting yourself up for failure eventually.

One must remember that all we give here is advice on what you should do with your pond based on testing and a lot of trial and error. Depth of pond and size and type of fish all these things must be considered. Where you live and do you have air in your pond all of that plays a part. I am no expert by any means, and at the end of the day they are your ponds to do with what you want. The nice things is the 1/3 acre pond will be easier to fix if something goes wrong with it.

RC

Thanks again RC, my thoughts were the Walleye And the Stripers would help keep the Crappie in check. I do feed all my ponds every day as well. From the size of my trout and adult Crappie I think they are spoiled but good to eat. My wife and I both love Walleye and Perch and cannot wait to eat from my springs instead of Lake Huron.

Just my 02.

In a pond like that I would just stick with walleye being the main predator fish (and possibly the catfish).

I would hold off on the hybrid stripers and see how the walleye do first.

Good luck

Thank you very much. That sounds like a good idea and really the Walleye and Perch are most important to us as my Wife grew up on Lake Huron. Good grilling!
Has anyone ever tried Smelt in a small pond?
I may start another thread on that subject. More good table fare.
The Stripers sound like good fun and good eats too so I will just wait and see. Over the weekend I am going to take some pictures of the minnows I am trapping from the local creek to id. I know one is what are called Horny Heads around here. They are larger and I have caught ones up to 6 inches in the traps. I have seen some after time grow up to up to 14" before the Otters paid us a visit and wiped us out while we were on vacation.Anyhow I do have a good mix. This weekend I will put my traps out and take pictures.
I sure do appreciate the help and advice.
Mike

I agree I'm working with walleye as well and I think its best to have just walleye and perch at least until they are strongly established. Crappie can eat fry and are notorious for having cyclic boom and bust year classes. In small ponds crappie can often stunt but other people on here have more experience as to how to manage them to alleviate some of those problems. If you want crappie you may need to complicate things further by adding catfish of another large gaped predator. In fish managing the more complex the fish diversity you have the closer you get to jenga. . I recommend the KISS principle. On the other hand if you enjoy a challenge.... bring on the fish.

I wish I had joined this forum before stocking my pond. It sounds like I am going to have problems with the Crappie. Too bad because I like catching them and eating as well. I just hope the Walleye and Catfish keep them in check. We will fish them hard too. All were small when we put them in, nothing over 5 or 6 inches.Recently when fishing I caught one that was big and fat. Definate keeper. Now I just need to get some Walleye in there.
I will try and upload some pictures this weekend.

The pond is small so it can be pretty easily renovated and restocked - quick method. It can also be nudged, adjusted and managed toward a LMbass based pond to control the crappie - long time method.

That sounds encouraging Bill. Would the HSB do as well as the LMB?
Mr AG240, what is the KISS method?
I took pictures of the minnows yesterday and will try to load today. I sat and looked at my smaller pasture pond I call it yesterday, as the water was clear and the minnows and horn heads appear to be doing real well. There were hundreds of the minnows and I could plainly see Hornheads about 6-7 inches. Maybe a dozen or so cruising around the schooled up minnows. This smaller pond I dug for water supply for calves and a few sheep. It will be fenced seperate but I put in a water line from it downhill to supply a water trough. Another work in progress.

Since you have crappie, I would use both LMB and HSB for a "double barrel" more effective predation approach. Initially I would stock 25 -35% HSB and 65%-75% LMB; or you can use 50%:50%. I think the HSB will prey on the small early stage crappie when they inhabit open water, and the LMB will prey on the crappie when the young crappie as larger fish move more into the shallow or littoral areas that contain cover. That is the typical behavior pattern for crappie fry and younger juvenile crappie. Open water first then later moving more near shore where there in some structure/cover.

Thank you Bill,
That really is what I wanted to hear as I really wanted the pond to be like the pond where I grew up, everything. I should also add I have a few Turtles too. A painter which I put in and a Snapper who wandered in. The Snapper will go if my Ducks make a family there instead of the other pond where they hatched this year. If I dispatch the Snapper I will attemt to cook him. I thought starting out to put just about everything in there except Trout. I never considered the hybrids though until reading about them on here. Not too many of any species but enough of each to balance out. I will give it a try and I can always pump it out if problems. No big investment as most fish are just caught fishing and having fun anyhow. The Perch, Walleye, and Hybrids I will buy though but not many.There are Perch and walleye in the New river but only an occasional catch as mostly Smallies.
Thanks

Sorry should have put the explanation for the acronym in there. KIS is keep it simple.