Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose New Guy,New Pond-probably same old question

Hi, brand new user, having pond dug in southeast Michigan in next week or so.
65'x140' 16' deep or so- kind of a rounded off rectangle shape. planning on aeration using bubbler or two
would like to stock trout but have heard brown trout, while being resilient, arent the way to go in favor of rainbows due to difficulty of catching. are there any other reasons than this to not stock them?would also like to stock some type of reproducing game fish also, maybe smallmouth opr largemouth?
Also, is there a good rule of thumb as to how long to wait for food chain to establish or can i stock game fish at same time as feeders?
last for now, any recommendations on aerating systems? pond is cut into woods so i think i am stuck with electric but bringing power out will be no problem.
thanks in advance and sorry for # of questions.....i have many, many more....

The pond being in a woods will only support trout year round if when building it they hit a strong spring to feed water into it constantly. Otherwise trout will die in July-August even with aeration & 16ft deep. YOu might get lucky and have trout survive the first year when the pond has not had a chance to accumulate lots of leaves and dead vegetation. Dead materials in the pond will absorb oxygen in the mid summer to kill trout. As bass I would try smallmouth and yellow perch first. As the pond ages past 10-16 yrs the smallies may also periodically have kills due to too many leaves and too little oxygen. Then resort to Largemouth. Yellow perch tolerate fairly well low oxygen. Smallmouth do not perform well with bluegill but hybrid bgill are okay with smallies.

since its cut into the woods and I will have large deposits of leaves every fall, can i add more bubblers to help offset the oxygen lost to decomposition?
are there any other ways to offset/fight the large leaf deposits?

Large leaf deposits are a big problem for smaller ponds and still a problem for larger ponds. Your main problem with DO loss will occur during snow cover and in the hottest part of summer (Jul-Aug) when water is able to hold less dissolved oxygen(DO) as the water warms. Two membrane diffusers in the deepest zone or one larger 3or4 head membrane diffuser will throughly mix the 0.2 ac pond and create several turnovers per day to keep the pond well oxygentated. A well mixed pond top to bottom will warm the pond too much for trout to survive in midsummer. Trout will be severely stressed and then die after several days at 70-72F. You can have some nice 10"-12" stocked trout with pellet feeding Oct to June to produce 16" trout by June. Ten inch stocker trout are a relatively cheap way to produce a trout fishery for each year.

Reducing leaves can be done by pond perimeter fencing and dip net removing leaves in fall. Bacterial or microbe additions with aeration will help decompose leaves. Different species of tree leaves will decompose differently - some break down slowly, some faster. Know the most common tree species that surround your pond. IMO some bacterial products work better for leaf decomposition than other brands. I would start first with one of the best bacterial brands, watch the results for a couple years then maybe experiment with other brands. AS a base line start, I would contact this place for their best custom developed leaf decomposer: bugman@teamaquafix.com
www.naturalake.com

Check with Dan Laggis at Laggis Fish Farm Gobbles MI for some great perch and smallmouths both fish pellet trained and fast growers. Some of Laggis' perch on pellets are known to grow to 15"-16" if they are not invited to dinner first.