Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Stocking a pond that was drained 2 years ago?

Hello,
I need to stock a 2.5 acre pond that was drained approximately 2 years ago. I see small bluegill (2-3 inches) around the edge. I don’t plan to fertilize initially as I had allligator weed mechanically removed last summer. I don’t think there are any bass but, no way to know for certain. The goal is good all around fishing.

I would like black crappie and largemouth bass. What do you think about 500 bluegill / redear mix per acre. 50 bass per acre and 25 black crappie per acre (stocked in June)?

Also, planning on 20 grass carp per acre, or 50 total?

Any comments, thoughts or advice would be welcomed.

Thanks!

The pros will be along shortly with good advice. I think Crappie tend to overpopulate and stunt unless in large bodies of water. Your initial stockers may grow well but in very few years you won't have any of much size. Your BG numbers look fine to me. Are you going to feed them? If so, you could probably up those numbers some or just wait a couple years and you'll have a lot more naturally. Largemouth bass can be tricky. They can overpopulate and stunt too. It totally depends on what you want. If you want to catch a lot of 10 to 12 inch bass, you can stock more than of you want to catch some 4 or 6 pound bass. I think the rule of thumb is a pond can support about 100 lb. of LMB per acre. That would be 50 2lb bass or 20 5lb bass. However, you will need some predator to hopefully keep your bluegill numbers in check. Largemouth bass will do that okay. It is hard to keep the predator/prey ratio in balance over time.

seems you already have fish in it. Do you know what fish are already in the pond and how many?

Welcome to the forum MSsawyer!!

I would do a lot of fishing using live bait and several hook sizes to see if any bass are there before trying to add anything.

Do you have a lot of plant life for grass carp to eat? If you have over 20% of your pond in submerged plants, I'd start with NO more than 21 grass carp, stocking 7 each year for 3 years, and removing the 7 largest and replacing them with 12" GC every year after...Big GC don't eat much due to laziness.

I like a 10:1 ratio of BG to LMB more than your proposed 5:1 ratio. You can consider stocking Coppernose BG instead of northern BG also, both should do well there in MS. I'd consider adding Hybrid Striped Bass instead of Black Crappie.....If yuo really want BCP, consider stocking Hybrid BCP that produce poor quality offspring LMB can normally control

You need to know what is there prior to deciding what if anything to add. Fish , trap and seine first to see results. The current thought for LMB/BG ponds in the south is 25 to 1 on BG/LMB in an empty pond. The old 10/1 ratio was developed for food production in the 1930s.