Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Time to stock my predators

Well the time has come to introduce my LMB and albino CC this spring. My pond is a little over an acre in size and was mostly drained for quite a bit of work. Details of that here http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=30089&Number=409701#Post409701

Last spring I released 750 BG, 100 or so RES, 100 BG/RES hybrids, and 10 lbs of minnows as well as 24 10" BG that i brought in from a local pond. So if my plan were to have a fairly balanced pond with my side goal of having really nice BG how many LMB and CC would you introduce?

I am thinking around 50 of each or maybe less on the CC.

I also plan to add a feeder this year. It was my plan to build a dock last year and add the feeder to that but for the time being I am going to have to buy a bank mounted one and get it going soon.

Couple of questions.

What size is your pond?

Did you get the RES/BG hybrids from a fish farm or some other source? That is a little different cross from the traditional BG/GSF hybrids.

On the stocking of predators, I will leave that to someone with more experience to give a recommendation.

Do you have a good assessment of the current population status of BG ? Have they spawned yet ? Same for FH ?

See this recent thread on a similar question.


http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=439855#Post439855

And this thread has related info.


http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=439842#Post439842

Snrub, the pond is a little over an acre. All the fish came from a reputable hatchery last year through the county. I asked several people in the area about the hatchery and got nothing but good reviews. I just received there flyer again for this year and they are offering them again this year. Male bg x female res is the mix I believe.

Ewest, I do not have a good assessment on fish at this point. I know there were a lot of fry in the pond last sept. When I was in the pond installing the aeration system but they were to small to identify, I assumed them to be fhm. Maybe I should put a minnow trap out and see what I get.

Blue, generally for large BG, you'll want to overstock LMB.

In your situation, having added some large BG already, and having others growing well, you could have several years of both large LMB AND large BG if you stocked about 50-60, 6"-10" LMB.

I agree rex in the end I want to end up slightly bass heavy but the whole all the fish are small right now time frame is where I am not sure what to do. That is the only reason I had the fishery that my pond was before I lost all my fish. You could catch 1 1/2lb lmb that were living high on the hog all day long and the occasional 3-4lb with a single 6lb fish caught one time. Very nice bg and mediocre at best wcp. Luckily my bass kept the wcp and bg in check very well. As the wcp could have over ran things easily.

Whats the best way for me to try and figure out how my bg are doing that were put in as fingerlings last year. I imagine fishing for them right now would not be very fruitful.

Angling would be the best....a small trout hook under a bobber with the barb smashed down using pieces of worm.....or if you feed, a Stubby Steve's pellet lure.

Some baited fish traps will let you see if any spawn has occurred.

I'd expect your BG and RES to be averaging at least 6" by now.

Also watch for the BG spawn. Another idea is to do a seine survey.

I didnt notice a spawn last year but since I wiped out most of the areas they used to bed I am a little unsure of where I need to be watching still. I do know I had a spawn of some sorts as there were lots of extremely small fish in there last sept. when the aerator went in but I couldnt identify them but my guess was fhm as they seemed rather long and skinny to be bg but that is purely a guess.

As far as seigning goes I could possibly do that on the two finger of the pond but it would require a long deep seign to reach across the fingers and to the bottom of the pond.

So got home early enough to do a little fishing before dark. In about half an hour I caught 8 bg in the 4 3/4 to 5 1/2" range and one red ear that was just over 6". So I am thinking I probably did not have a spawn last year, thoughts? Second what size lmb and cc should I be looking at?