Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Considering what to do with a small pond

So, for now I'm not really able to do anything about the silted in pond I talked about in a previous post. It's just not really in the landowner's best interest to spend the kind of time and money necessary to save it. So we'll just keep doing what we've been doing, using it as a so-so put-and-take LMB fishery until it finally fills in or otherwise peters out for good.

In the meantime, the same cousin that owns that one has another little hole about 300 yards behind my parents' house. It's small, probably somewhere around 1/8 acre, but I haven't measured. It is completely devoid of fish presently. I'm positive about that one, even without shocking or anything, observation and fishing attempts have turned up absolutely no fish. It held channel cats when I was a kid, but it leaked and went completely dry several times. The owner, for whatever reason, has done a bit of work on it and it's been staying at a pretty constant level for a number of years now. Not really sure why he took the trouble to seal it, as he has said he has no intentions of stocking it. However, he did say that if we wanted to stock, we could, and my dad is considering financing said operation.

So, the question is what to do with it. It's a bowl-shaped excavated pond, fed from runoff. It's in a crop field, so it's staying really muddy. I also am concerned about pesticides and such harming the fish. It does seem to be staying free of filamentous algae. I have seen a small amount of what I think is duckweed, and there are some grasses along the edges. Also, cattails on one side. Water is probably around 3 or 4' deep in the center. Not sure about temps, what would be typical of a pond that size with no tree cover in north middle TN?

My fear is that crop-related runoff, and the small size of the pond may keep it from sustaining a decent fishery for more than a couple or three years. With that said, it could be fun while it lasts. My inclination is channel cats only, but what for them to feed on? Too small to risk BG, I think. Should I just plan to pellet-feed? Also, as muddy as it is, should I instead try a non-typical pond fish, like bullheads instead? I realize that they would probably thrive and overpopulate, but it's probably gonna end up not lasting long enough to be anything but a P&T fishery with other species anyway.

I don't expect much from this pond, just want to have some fun with it, and give my girlfriend and I a convenient place to fish with my folks when we visit. But the beauty of not expecting the pond to sustain good fishing for very long is that I'm willing to try just about anything as far as species. In the name of a good experiment, I'd be willing to throw in about anything I could buy or transplant. But if there are any options that might work long-term, that would certainly be better. Just really not sure what direction to go with this one, any advice is appreciated!

Brandon,

Stock it with a good strain of BG and a few channels to help keep them in check. You could have a pretty good BG pond that way, and really a lot of fun.

ML, that's probably what I'll end up doing. Although, I have toyed with the idea of throwing "eating-size" (used somewhat loosely) black crappie in, with the idea that my dad and I would have to fish them every couple of days and keep EVERY SINGLE ONE we caught. I figure that with enough pressure on a pond that size, they could be managed on a P&T basis. Sure, if we let our guard down for any length of time, they would stunt like crazy. But I figure that the combination of really muddy water (which would limit the black variety somewhat), and the fact that my dad would eat crappie for every meal if he could, might lessen the potential impact of the problem. I could fish it every day if necessary during the summer, and at least a 3-4 times a week during school. It's only a 40 minute drive, and crappie are fun to catch but hard to find for me as a bank fisherman. And my dad really would eat as many as I can hand him, as far as he's concerned there is NO other food fish. But then again, BG and CC would be fine if nobody here thinks I could make it work. I will defer to the better minds here, but bear in mind that I'm not interested in raising trophy fish, I'm not even all that interested in keeping the fishery sustained for more than a couple or three years. It's not a particularly promising little mud hole. I just want something that will allow my GF and I to fish for something in a convenient location, and give my dad some eats. Either option would fulfil the purpose, but the crappie would be a bit more interesting to all involved parties.

And no, I don't really care if the crappie caught are "fillet-able" or not. My dad would eat a crappie 3" long if you gave it to him. We routinely clean BG by simply beheading, scaling, and gutting. I don't think my dad would mind giving smaller crappie the same treatment in the least little bit...

I've tried to convert him to other fish for eating, other than just 'gills and crappie. Doesn't seem to work. I mentioned "tilapia" to him the other day, and he just replied, "that's what I drive, a jalopy." I somehow believe he could eat every crappie in a 1000 acre lake in a few days if given half the chance...

I hope to see some of the experts chime in on this one. As a personal opinon I would make sure you get some good forage fish established first. Something along the lines of fathead minnows. What I have read on crappie I would think there would have to be ample enough forage for them in the muddy water to be able to find it. A good pellet trained bluegill would be my choice. I would install a feeder on a timer. I have hybrid bluegill right now that the second the pellets hit the water they are there. I have just a handful of them to see how well they do compaired to my native BG of the same size I stocked at the same time. The hybrid are a lot more aggressive at feeding time than are the natives. The only downfall I see is that they may revert back to GS and Gs do well in turbide water. I have read if you go hybrid BG that it is a good idea to kill off the pond around every 5 years in order to keep from establishing a green sunfish population. It sounds like a kill off may be natural in your pond. These are only my opinions and I am no expert. These are just my personal opinions based on what I have read and also information I have picked up here in past threads. Good luck.

You bring up a good point about the kill-off. I don't know for sure (hey, I ain't psychic or anything ), but I expect that you're right that the pond in question will die on its own in a few years like you said. With that in mind, I don't know why I didn't think about the hybrid BG. I guess I'm just biased against 'em b/c of the stuff I've read about reverting back to GSF, but if I'm gonna be doing P&T and expecting some sort of kill in a short matter of time, the GSF thing shouldn't matter too much. But that's also why I considered crappie, b/c I don't really expect that they'll be in there long enough to overpopulate. But you also bring up a good point about the black crappie having a hard time hunting in the muddy water (and it is practically 0" visibility). So, perhaps they won't overpopulate, but they're not gonna get very big either. And the HBG would probably be much easier to pellet-feed than the crappie, so maybe that would be the best all-around option. I'm gonna kick this around a little more and try to decide for sure what I want to do with this thing. I've still got several months before it cools off enough to do any stocking, so I've got time to think about it I guess.

APCENTER

If the pond would actually die off and dry you could get rid of any GS that may have reverted back. But if it leaves puddles you may have to use retnone to kill off what would be left. GS can live in very little water for some time. On the plus side if the pond were to get low enough to kill off most fish but not GS it would be fairly cheap to treat the small amout of water left. I guess like you hinted earlier time will tell what the pond does. Hey anyways have fun with it and good luck.

I know this'll probably sound pretty awful, but even if the pond didn't suffer a major kill within a few years, it really wouldn't matter too much if the population got severely out of whack. I'm not planning to be in the area too long after I finish my masters degree, and the property owner isn't gonna care too much if the pond is healthy or not after I leave. He doesn't fish, and as I said before, if it gets stocked at all it'll be my doings, he's said he has no intention of stocking it. So, basically I have free reign to experiment as I please with it. With that in mind, I'm willing to take some big risks "in the name of science". If I throw some "atypical" species in there and something goes horribly awry in a couple or three years, nobody's really gonna mind. But if something that shouldn't work actually does, I can then try to figure out why it worked, and use that knowledge in the future. It's really a no-lose situation for all involved.

APC, do what you think you will have fun with. Opinions of species come and go. Talk of 10 in. GS even has pond meisters like MeadowLark, Bruce, Cecil, George, Dave, and others raising their eyebrows. I say hybrids reverting to GS is no worse that a pond reverting to dirt. You could always use the GS as trotline bait if nothing else.

Agreed, and the heck of it is that it very well could revert to dirt in a small amount of time. So I'm trying to figure out the best way to have fun with it while it lasts. The only thing is that I don't want to have to stock adult fish ($$$), so I'm trying to be careful in what I select in order to ensure that enough fish will survive long enough to reach keeper size (or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof). I had toyed with the idea of tossing in a pickerel or two, but I'm afraid they would eat everything else in a short amount of time. If I had 15 acres I could probably support a few. But it's little more than a mud puddle with delusions of grandeur. Between now and this fall, I gotta find the right dividing line between "fun experiment" and "just plain stupid". It doesn't have to be a great fishery for very long, but I don't want to come out one day and find two larger predators starving to death 'cause they ate all their "company" either!

So, everybody give me some more opinions. If there was one thing you ever wanted to try in a small pond that you would never actually dare to try yourself, what would it be? I'm actually willing to take the fall for everybody here, and I'm not gonna be upset if/when it doesn't work!

Meadowlarks idea of BG and CC gives most bang for the buck. They will take feed and have a good ratio of food in vs. growth out. I love crappie, but given choice between broad shouldered BG and small crappie, no contest.
I'm in a similar situation as you, old, never stocked, has, I think only shiner minnows and BG. I enjoy the challenge.

Considering that I'm probably gonna want to pellet-feed anyway, and that I don't have any real concerns about the revertion back to GSF, hybrids seem like a real possibility for the primary species. With that in mind, would pellet-feeding the CC's be the best option, or should I add some pure-strain BG as well? Also, I might add some small proportion of RES just for giggles.

I probably want to keep LMB out of the equation, as they just won't do anybody (including themselves) any good in this pond, I fear. I still keep kicking around the idea of a very small number of some sort of "bonus" fish, though. Maybe I'm just doing too much wishful thinking, but I want the possibility of catching something unusual. Just don't know what would be the most viable species for this...

Yeah, I'd put some bluegills in. I've never felt like a 100% artificial food source is all that good. Also, feeders can break down, run out of feed get stolen, etc.

OK, gotta play the numbers game now...

So, we're in 1/10th to an 1/8th surface acre pond with very muddy water. Planning on stocking BG, HBG, RES, and CC. How many of each should I go with? Also, when should each species be stocked and what sizes would be recommended?

Still hoping for some more opinions on the "bonus" fish!

Thanks for all the replies so far!

ill leave most of the numbers to the experts but you wont be able to have alot of catfish in their maybe tops 25 to 35 with feed. As your bluegill and RE and HBG im guessing not many of them either, probably about 100 total split up however u want. Also make sure u get about 3-5 lbs of fatheads in there soon.
But the problem with this type of pond is that it can and probably will over populate with bluegill unless you seine it or trap it.

Another option is to have a channel catfish only pond with fatheads and supplemental feeding. These types of ponds are probably the easiest to maintain. If u decide to go with this type of pond you will need up to about 8 - 10lbs of fatheads and can possibly increase your catfish numbers by ten or fifteen more also.
The reason you'll be able to hold more cats is that there won't be any competition for the feed from any of your BG, RE, and HBG.

But thats just a thought
-Jighead

If you're willing to feed them regularly, Hybrid stripers or LMB on feed make great pets and pretty good eating. HSB are expensive but you could just put in a few and the rest catfish.

BrianH,

Sorry, but have to respectfully disagree. HSB in a 1/8 acre pond is not a good choice, not a good choice at all. They need deep open water, preferrably lots of it. I woudn't want a "pet" to be forced into an environment that is not suitable. Just my opinion.

Do they "need" deep open water or just prefer it? Have you seen how they raise them for food production? Lots of fish in small waters. I had 100 in a 1/4 acre pond and enjoyed the heck out of them. To each his own.

Brian,

Good point.

Prefer, yes. Need, I'm not sure cause I have not raised them beyond less that 8 inches in a small pond.

Good example of presenting both sides, without rancor, and let the poster decide. Thanks for your comment on mine.