Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain 5 acre pond- need advice please

i am draining and restocking a 5 acre pond in south ga. my plan is to get the state fisheries to stock the pond with about 2500 bream- 250 bass - 250 catfish - i am going to buy about 50 hybrid bass to put in as well. i may put in about 50 crappie but not sure. my question is should i put in a type of shad. i have been reading about gizzard shad and that is what i am leaning toward except for how much the reproduce. the pond will have a feeder in it and plenty of underwater cover. i want the pond to be mainly for big bass but dont want to mess up the bream by putting in the shad. what you yall think.

Rebbecapond,welcome to PB.I cant help you but wanted to welcome you aboard.Hang on and some of the experts will be along with good advice and lots of questions.

Greetings and felicitations, Rebeccapond.

You should have some time (couple of years, at least) to research, think, and decide on both the Crappie and Gizzard Shad. Those state-provided fish are likely to be smaller fingerlings. It 's probably not a good idea to stock Crappie before your bass population is mature and reproducing and it's very probably not a good idea to stock GShad before the LMB get some good size on them.

Threadfin Shad, maxing out at a smaller size, are a different story. They might be preferrable to GShad if you are far enough South for TShad to overwinter successfully.

Greg Grimes would have excellent recommendations and would probably be able to get you any fish that you will not be able to obtain from the state. He's a professional fish stocker and lake manager working out of Ball Ground, GA. Greg is frequently-to-intermittently on the forum and his website is lakework.com, if you are interested.

hey rebbecapond. I have about a 5 acre pond with crappie in it and wish I never had of put them in there. They are fat and fun to catch sometimes however they compete with my bass for food and overall I think the fishery would be better if they weren't in it. As far as shad go I agree with theo, You have a couple of years to decide. Threadfins would be the better way to go exspecialy in south geogia were it doesn't get as cold in the winter. With them you won't have to worry about them getting to large for the bass to eat. I stocked them in a 1.6 acre pond last year and was please when I went baitcasting this spring to find they were doing great. My bass are in great shape and the topwater action in the pond is awesome.

now i am leaning toward thread fins. about how many do i need to put in the pond. should i want to about year 2 or so before doing it

They usually sell threadfins by the load which is about 5000 adult threadfins. The best time to stock them is in the early spring right before they lay eggs to ensure that they get established. I stocked mine in mid may last year and put in 10000 just to make sure that I wouldn't have any problems getting them established. They say its harder to get a population of threadfins started in ponds less than 2 acres. If you stocked the rest of the fish now I would add some fathead minnows just to get the bass started growing and then next spring go ahead and order a load of threadfins. They fatheads should be gone by then. They are usually only used during initial stocking of a pond.