Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain new pond advice

I stocked my 3 acre pond from Hopper-stephens hatchery in lonoke arkansas, 501-676-2435 or 501-676-5491. Great advise that I agreed with and health fish. LMB,BG,RS,CC,GC,HB,BC,FHM. ALL my fathead minnows, gambusia, and rosey reds came from I.F.Anderson farms in Lonoke, 1-800-206-4666. Extremely reasonable prices and healthy. I had called Dunn's and decided on Hopper-stephens. my fishing partner, along with several other retired FBI agents go there to shoot birds for them once a week, great people down to earth.
For advice, vertex aerators, and he will deliver your fish from any hatchery by the mileage, try Allen Carter, Benton, Arkansas 501-316-2682 or fisheriesanswers@sbcglobal.net. he is a great guy and retired from the Arkansas Game & Fish, director of fisheries I believe.

I suggest you call Bob at the Pond Boss office. He knows the Okla fish hatcheries and may have the fish you need from his hatchery. There are a bunch of good hatcheries in Okla and Ark.

I used Hartley in Kansas for BG and RES. They ship as well. http://www.hartleyfishfarmsinc.com/

Just make sure to give your FH and BG some time before the bass go in. And if you do go with CC, realize that they're eventually going to compete with your LMB. If your goal is LMB, keep the CC out. Forage, forage, forage. Maybe even consider adding some golden shiners from Anderson Fish Farms as well.

I appreciate all the advice. I am going to call Hartley, they are about 2 hours from me. My pond is only about 7' deep, i was under the impression that is was not deep enough for the vertex style aerator.

Snag free DIY Structure http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=8209&fpart=1

Make sure the LMB you order are feed trained. They'll grow much faster on pellets than forage alone.

There are some interesting ideas in this forum. Some people are trying or have tried them. I'm going to list a few in case you might be interested as it may change your stocking stradegy completely.

Male bluegill only for trophy bluegill, see Bruce Condello

High denisity LMB and bluegill for trophy bluegill and easily caught but small bass, Theo Gallus and some others

Bluegill and Female only LMB for trophy LMB.

High density Hybrid Striped bass only for big easy to catch fishing. Bruce Condello pushed this idea beyond the limit I believe.

Hank, with the high water temps, this might not be the best time to try to stock fish. If it were me, and it's not, I would wait until the water cools in the Fall.

BTW, I assume that you have checked the PH and alkilinity. How is the fertility?

Coppernose Bluegill spawn 4 to 5 times a year where as other blue gill, perch, etc. spawn 2 to 3 times a year. Ive asked all the big wigs in Texas about raising LMB and they all said to stock CNBG. I see you have already got the fish coming, and once u get bit with this fish thing its hard to tell anyone not to do something and them not do it(i.e me) but in saying that if you could hold back the urges i promise you will be better off stocking just forage this year and predators next year. A forage base is gonna set you up for many fun years to come. With the way feed prices are going its getting more expensive to have a little forage and feed alot. P.S do not get too many HSB if you decide to because your pond is not big enough to support them and LMB unless your gonna feed all the time.

Also please dont stock that many catfish!!!!! maybe 20

I am picking up my fish this morning, I ordered 250 CNBG and 7lbs of FHM's and I left the catfish completly off the order. I also ordered 75-100 redear.

I really appreciate all the help from everyone, it has made this process so much easier.

Hank you're way ahead of a majority of pond owners having subscribed to the magazine and joined the forum. Keep us updated on your progress.

When you say perch, do you mean yellow perch? I doubt they are available in OK. Too far south.

I put 150 standard BG in my 1/3 acre pond, along with 150 YP, and 10# of minnows. I could have easily done 200 in hindsight, plus you will have a small amount of mortality from the fish being moved in the warm weather.

Golden Shiners are a good forage fish, and you might be able to get tilapia, which are supposed to be very tasty.

Have you considered catching some adult native BG to add to your HBG's.
I stocked my new .6 acre pond with 400 HBG and 50 BC in Feb and have caught about 80 native BG from another pond and I love the results. I like the super fast growth the HBG's are showing and they put up a nice fight on my fly rod for theor size. The adult BG's are breeding very well and I see a lot of BG yoy scholling all around the pond. Seeing quite a few yoy BG from spring in th 2" range which should provide good forage for my 10 7-10" LMB I stocked about a month ago.
Catching the adult BG seem to be giving me a head start with both good forage production and a nice bonus fight when I hook one of those 6-7" bad boys on a fly.