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This is the 2nd year from my 2 acre pond which I personally stocked YP,BG, RES, HSB and grass carp from a reputable fishery. All seems well for the most part..good growth and overall health.. It does however seem like some fish got in the pond that I did not stock..

I am noticing some Bull head that got into the pond somehow, I see that some of the bluegill I am catching are warmouth which I never put in. To top it all off while fishing a week ago my brother landed a nice size large mouth bass. I found it hard to believe it could have gotten that big in just over 2 years. The Pond is hidden deep in the woods so it's not like anyone could easily dump fish in..

My question.. and i know it's been asked before but do fish really come in on birds feet? What is the most likely cause of these other fish?

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KRM, have you had any heavy rain/flooding events? Sometimes fish can swim from one body of water to another, upstream or downstream, when this happens.

Based on what I've read here on PB, the experts are skeptical that birds really transport fish all that often.


7ac 2015 CNBG RES FHM 2016 TP FLMB 2017 NLMB GSH L 2018 TP & 70 HSB PK 2019 TP RBT 2020 TFS TP 25 HSB 250 F1,L,RBT -206 2021 TFS TP GSH L,-312 2022 GSH TP CR TFS RBT -234, 2023 BG TP TFS NLMB, -160




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Did you carefully sort and see each fish that was stocked? I know I have been guilty of just inspecting the stocker fish 'en masse' in the buckets, maybe randomly lifting some of them, but not actually going through them fish by fish. Granted, that can stress them but it would be the only way to be sure of what you're getting.
And even doing that, some of the smaller BG can be difficult to distinguish from other similar species. At least for me.
I've seen the 'bird stocking' scenarios discussed on the forum before, but can't recall if any sort of consensus was reached. IIRC the thinking was 'not impossible but almost so' unless the two BOW were close together.


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The pond is fed from a large field nearby. There have been some heavy rain events but there is not a body of water connected to the stream that feeds the pond. The nearest body of water is a neighboring farm pond but it is not connected. It has our minds boggled.

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Found a discussion about bird stocking of ponds here.


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I assume you stocked from a local fish farm. Another clue would be if that fish farm does not sell bullhead or warmouth then these probably did not come in with the fish that you did intend to stock. Fish farms probably stock/sell LMB so they 'COULD' have hitchhiked in with the others.

If you sourced from several fish farms or a travelling fish truck then the conclusions from this kind of logical thinking are pretty poorly supported..

Fish finding a way to selfstock or fish holding tightly with their fins to the feet of flying great blue heron? That is the stuff that legends are made of.

Bullhead are not found at fish farms around me so if bullhead showed up in my pond the first thing I would do is check every puddle/pond or lake within a 3-5 mile radius. The one that has bullhead in it is probably the one that also has warmouth and LMB in it too.

Trespassers doing bucket stocking is possible but again might be a little less likely based on how remote your pond is. On the other hand, it seems that remote ponds are magnets for trespassers as the challenge of getting in undetected is hard to resist, and you add to that the thought that there probably are fish there that NO ONE ELSE knows about or fishes for and then your mind starts scheming...

Last edited by canyoncreek; 06/15/18 02:56 PM.
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Since I have moved to my country home by a little creek, 6 years now, I have spooked many GBH's while walking near the waters. Two of which spit out a fish just after taking flight. I have seen this one other time while fishing a conservation lake nearby. This particular spit fish was rather large - 6-8 inches. I was able to retrieve one of other fish off of a dry gravel bed, still flopping about, I returned it to the creek to live another day. I can see how a heron could take a fish to another nearby BOW, get spooked, and there you go...a new species in the pond.

Now that has to happen twice, beating the 50/50 odds for male vs female, in a short enough period of time that spawning can happen to create a population, but it only has to happen once to introduce that one bass.

The chances of eggs sticking to bird's feet and then surviving are very, very slim in my opinion.


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I did encounter a situation where a (sloppy? unscrupulous?) stocker put in bullheads instead of the promised channel cats. But that doesn't appear to be the case for KRM.


7ac 2015 CNBG RES FHM 2016 TP FLMB 2017 NLMB GSH L 2018 TP & 70 HSB PK 2019 TP RBT 2020 TFS TP 25 HSB 250 F1,L,RBT -206 2021 TFS TP GSH L,-312 2022 GSH TP CR TFS RBT -234, 2023 BG TP TFS NLMB, -160




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My pond was barely two months old and had barely 2' of water in it when I saw the first evidence of fish life in it. It appeared to be at least a couple inches long. I wrote it off as a frog at first. My pond's water is entirely watershed. It gradually came up to 6 feet deep and with one rain was completely full. No creeks, no streams nothing but watershed. Fast forward 6 months and we're deep into building our house. The wife is down by the pond and hollers at me to come see. Two GSF are on a bed. No way for them to get there except by bird traffic, which we had daily. A GBH came to visit like clockwork. That was the only outside source of transport to our pond. Just saying...whether they were eggs stuck to its feet or deliberately carried in by mouth, there was ABSOLUTELY no other way for them to get in there. Not long after that was when I saw a 6-7 inch BHC rise to the surface and take a bug. That was 6 months before Harvey hit and left 5 foot of water over the pond.

Last edited by Mike Whatley; 06/15/18 09:12 PM.

.10 surface acre pond, 10.5 foot deep. SW LA. The epitome of a mutt pond. BG, LMB, GSF, RES, BH, Warmouth, Longear Sunfish, Gambusia,Mud Minnows, Crappie, and now shiners!!...I subscribe!!
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KRM, On the note about you doubt a lmb could get that big in 2 years....I just recently posted photos of 2 year old lmb in my pond that had already reached 3 1/2 pounds. They had plenty cnbg to feed on.If you only had a handful of lmb in there they could be quite healthy!!


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Originally Posted By: DrLuke
Found a discussion about bird stocking of ponds here.


I have personally watched both means of fish transportation by birds.

The heron I scared away from our pond puked in the pond before he flew away. I have also heard of them puking in the pond to chum the minnows over. I have not seen this but have scared one to the point it puked. I expect if any minnows from another pond were in their belly but not dead they swam away in our pond.

The belted king fisher was moving minnows into a small puddle one day. I watched for some time... thought it was odd. The next day I watched her with her babys in this small puddle leaning to fish. King fishers are called the king because not once did she leave our pond with out a minnow.

Cheers Don.


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Regardless I would put up a game cam. Seems "fishy" to me.

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Originally Posted By: liquidsquid
Regardless I would put up a game cam. Seems "fishy" to me.


I see what you did there.


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I think GBH could stock from neighboring ponds. There are three other ponds within two hundred yards of my ponds, but not connected in any way, even during flood times. The White River is only 2,400 feet as the heron flies.

I saw two LMB in the 12 inch range in my first pond last year. Maybe they came in with FHM from the fish truck in fall 2015, don't know. At any rate, there were already too many small BG, so I stocked five more LMB last summer. There is one LMB in the 16-17 inch range now.

My dad was an avid wildlife watcher and hunter all his life. He had watched herons carry fish, and fully believed they could move fish into a pond where there had been none.

Almost every day I scare a GBH from one of my ponds, or off the creek below.
Today I saw a little green heron at my forage pond.

Last edited by John Fitzgerald; 06/16/18 07:12 PM.
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I have a hard time understanding how anyone can have a pure BG, HBG, CNBG, RES, or any Sunfish for that matter, with all the potential infiltration of other species. Seems no matter what you plan out, the potential for something else showing up is pretty high.


.10 surface acre pond, 10.5 foot deep. SW LA. The epitome of a mutt pond. BG, LMB, GSF, RES, BH, Warmouth, Longear Sunfish, Gambusia,Mud Minnows, Crappie, and now shiners!!...I subscribe!!
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I'll bet it could have been a combination of things.. maybe the warmouth got mixed in the the bluegill stock at the fishery. Possibly the LMB too? I would think a bullhead could withstand being out of the water long enough for a bird to transport it... I guess we will never know for sure but it's interesting and confusing. If by the crazy chance a trespasser did it, then they sure were sneaky and it was a darn good trick.

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In a damp dark place a bullhead can survive 24hrs from personal observation...I dumped some from my cloverleaf trap in to the woods to feed raccoons last summer, they were still gulping air the next evening

In 2013 my cousins farm pond froze solid, it maxes out at 4' deep. 4 years later it had gobs of 12-18" LMB - he never stocked the pond and it is not connected to any other stream or body of water in any other way


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If he had gobs of them, he had something else besides them to feed on. That's my point exactly.

People spend some serious $ to create their idea of the perfect pond just to have it dashed a couple years down the road. The hatcheries tell you to kill the pond and start over...its good for them...not so good for you. Especially when it's just as likely your perfect pond is gonna get contaminated again.


.10 surface acre pond, 10.5 foot deep. SW LA. The epitome of a mutt pond. BG, LMB, GSF, RES, BH, Warmouth, Longear Sunfish, Gambusia,Mud Minnows, Crappie, and now shiners!!...I subscribe!!
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Originally Posted By: Mike Whatley
If he had gobs of them, he had something else besides them to feed on. That's my point exactly.

People spend some serious $ to create their idea of the perfect pond just to have it dashed a couple years down the road. The hatcheries tell you to kill the pond and start over...its good for them...not so good for you. Especially when it's just as likely your perfect pond is gonna get contaminated again.


The hatcheries and the fish trucks are there for one purpose: to sell as many fish as possible, not to dispense sound stocking advice. I've heard of them around here trying to sell 300 CC per acre. The people put them in their pond, and then never feed or manage.

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I witnessed a large pond being stocked a few weeks ago. As I walked the banks prior to the stocking I noticed two occasions of small minnow like fish already there. Months earlier I viewed this pond being built with just a trickle of water flowing throuh the bottom of it. Mind you it is a large watershed. Could have been ponds above or creeks below for all I know because it was not my pond.

The point is there were already fish in this pond. Will they be a problem? Not likely. Forage fish were being stocked in good numbers before the large pond was half filled.

But had this pond never been stocked with fish at all, at some future point I would imagine it would be to carrying capacity filled with some sorts of fish. With never a single fish being purposely stocked.

Nature has a way of making things happen. Sometimes to our benefit, sometimes not.

Last edited by snrub; 06/18/18 09:25 AM.

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Yeah, I guess that's kinda the way I am looking at it now. I'll do my best to manage it and keep it mostly in check but at the end of the day nature will always be the ultimate manager.

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I shudder a little when I hear people building a new pond and holding off stocking forage fish for a year (or maybe only stocking FHM) while the other natural foods build a base.

Knowing what I know now about invasive fish like GSF, BH, etc., I would want to stock the forage fish as soon as practical. One pair of 3" GSF in an otherwise fish empty pond and a year later there will be a bazillion GSF. Fully willing and ready to eat almost every fingerling forage fish stocked.

If the forage fish get an even start a few unwanted fish likely will not be a wreck. But let the unwanted get a good head start and..........oh my!

Last edited by snrub; 06/18/18 10:32 AM.

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Only use reputable hatcheries that stand behind their services. Stock fish as soon as practically possible. Have an solid plan to stock to reach your goals.
















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DonoBBD wrote: "The belted king fisher was moving minnows into a small puddle one day. I watched for some time... thought it was odd. The next day I watched her with her babys in this small puddle leaning to fish. King fishers are called the king because not once did she leave our pond with out a minnow."


I've heard from enough people I trust about herons dropping fish in ponds, and Don's story above is astounding from a Mother Nature perspective.

When I observe a great blue heron, I always think about how similar it looks to pterodactyl. That makes believe a heron has a few million years of instinct burned into it's DNA.

That makes me believe these kinds of birds will absolutely knowingly put fish in a pond as a means of future food source.

Just my opinion....


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The truth is, we can never totally win. With an open, outdoor pond, there will always be at least a few unwanted fish from one source or another. We can only do the best we can.

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