Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Lets talk Trophy Camelot Bell Jumper stocking

Excited ? You bit cha Yesterday afternoon Walt from Overtons fishery showed up dragging behind him a trailer full of TFS (10,000) and 300 Camelot Bell LMB fingerlings. These CBLMB were introduced to a 3.5 acre pond that has been fertilized. The water has around 22" of visibility of a nice green color. The surface water temp was 93 all around the pond. It was a hot afternoon in E. Texas. I was adding water to the pond from a water well and the well water temp was 73 so we decided to add the fish where the pond and water well mixed together. Now these TFS were around 2 to 3" size and after blending some of the pond water with the fish storage water, we added a little time to the mix and then we turned them loose in the pond. I think there was an added treat to the mix as I saw a frog as soon as we started adding the shad, not sure but I think it came with the shad, but I saw no charge on the invoice for a Bull frog. We talk here about looking at the fish before stocking but how in the world do you look at 10,000 fish? After a walk around I might have seen 100 dead shad along the shore and the bottom of the pond.
The Camelot Bell lmb fingerlings were added after the shad and were introduced to the pond the same way as the shad. We added 85 fingerlings per acre of water with some concern that the larger CNBG and RES might take a few for eating. The CNBG were stocked in large numbers (6,700) back in Nov and again in Feb and have been fed daily, looking for fast and maximum growth by heavy feeding. The RES (1850) were also stocked starting back in Nov. The larger might just make a meal of the CBLMB so extra were added. And we can and will reduce the lmb numbers prior to next yrs spawn as we attempt to keep as many females and reduce the males by some serious fishing.
I would also like to mention that the pond was stocked with 120 lbs of FHM's that have been spawning along with 1200 to 1500 native crawfish that have done well in the pond and I am now seeing crawfish in the 6" size along with seeing them in the 2" size. I also added around 50 GSH in Dec (2" size) by bucket stocking after a fishing trip introducing the leftover minnows to the pond. I almost forgot, I added 5 lbs of 4 to 6" Tilapia in April and they have been spawning also.
The goal here is to grow large catchable LMB maybe into the 15 + lb range.
Thanks for letting me tell this story here.

Tracy

Tracy,

Exciting times! Sounds like you have all the pieces in place to have a great fishery. Can't wait to get updates in the future!

Good Luck!

Bill D.

WOW! Great stocking plan!

thats awesome!

Sounds like a great setup ! Congrats

I forgot to mention, the cblmb fingerlings were chasing the fhm's in just a few minutes from the lmb stocking. The fresh water sharks(lmb) were in small groups and targeting the fhm and were successful, I saw them with the fhm in their mouths. The cblmb fingerlings are small two to 3" but were able to rap their mouths around the smaller fh fry They seam to be very aggressive

Tracy