Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose trophy catfih pond

hello, I am building a pond that i want to use for large catfish. the pond will end up being about 100ft wide and 500-600 feet long and vering in depth from a few at the bank to 12+ ft. No arreation because the closest power will be 1/2 mile away. I can pellet feed but big fish dont get big eating pellets alone, so what else should i put in? Also I am thinking of the blue/channle hybrid, I have heard thet do real well in ponds. Does any one know of a hatchery that will send me some of thoes?.. any advice will be good...

Welcome to the forum tommy!

First off, many of the regulars have or are shortly leaving for the somewhat annual Pond Boss conference. So you may not get as many responses as normal. However, all should be back by the beginning of next week...

If you sole goal is huge catfish, I would definitely establish a feeding plan. You'd be surprised at how large catfish can grow on mostly pellets. Plus, pellets get those smaller catfish an excellent jump start.

From my calculations, your pond is about 1.25 acres. Certainly large enough to grow some nice sized catfish. The inability to aerate the pond will limit the poundage of fish you can have but you still can have a good number of fish.

If you're really want to grow huge catfish, I would definitely go with blue catfish or at a minimum their hybrid cross with channel catfish. The size potential for blue cats compared to channel cats is huge. I have no dealt with hybrid catfish before so I cannot say what their maximum size is, but I am not sure I see an advantage over them compared to blue cats for what you are trying to do. Perhaps others with some experience with them will have a different opinion.

What I can say is blue cats are glutonous eaters, especially when in the larger 15-20 pound plus range. As far as a stocking plan, the biggest question is are you planning on this pond being a catch and release fishery or will you be eating some of the catfish you catch. If eating fish, you can stock more, if not you should stock less.

If not keeping fish to eat, I would stock 25 blue cats. Add more for the number of fish you plan to keep if you are going to keep some to eat. I would stock 25 every year.

First I would stock golden shiners. I would stock 12 pounds when you stock your fingerling catfish. With only 25 or so blue cats, they should hold their numbers well for the first 3 to 4 years. It is important you keep a pellet feeding program going during this time period as well. By the 5th year, you should have some catfish in the 15 pound range at this point I would stock gizzard shad. They will then be the backbone of the forage for your larger catfish and will allow them to attain some huge sizes. The large sized catfish will help keep the gizzard shad from getting too out of control.

I recommend such low stocking numbers for the blue cats because you want huge fish... By huge catfish, I define them at 30-50 pound plus. Unfortunately, a 1.25 acre pond can only support a finite number of catfish that large, so stocking anymore than 25 fish unless they are going to be eaten is not needed and will just lead to issues later on, particularly without aeration.

This post is just my opinion. I am sure others may have their own opinions and they may very well be better than mine. Good luck with your pond and I hope to see some 30 pound plus fish in a few years!

+1 on what CJ said.

I'd definately pellet feed, and I'll bet the catfish could get pretty darn big on the AquaMax Largemouth Pellets once they get large enough to eat them. If you haven't seen them, the pellets are about 1" long and 3/4" thick.

From what I've seen happen to a local lake that had Gizzard shad illegally stocked, I don't know if 25 large catfish will be a large enough predator base to keep their numbers in check. I'd be tempted to stay with Golden Shiners and AquaMax Largemouth Pellets. That way if you ever want to change your goals, you won't have an over population of Gizzard Shad to deal with.

I've put regular Channel Cats in the pond at 6"-9" in length in late April, early May. In 5 months, they've grown to 12"-16" in length. I'm feeding AquaMax 500 and 600.

Catfish get hook shy, and can be hard to catch once they've been hooked a few times. (at least in my pond! Either that, or I just can't catch catfish worth a hoot.)

I have heard that they can get hook shy but then i think of pay lakes where there large fish are caught more than one a week. On the pellets, how many pounds should i give in a feeding? how many times a week? I have red some where that the blue/channel hybrid can thrive in almost no oxygen and certanaly much lower than a regular blue or channel cat. Would blue gill be a good forge fish? I know that is a favorit bate for flathead fishermen and i just might put a few flats in there.

I have bluecats and channel cats in a 1/3 acre pond. I started with fathead minnows and later shiners were introduced by a friend. I added redear at year 3 or 4. Last few years I have put in tilapia and have never seen a single floater come winter.

I started with bluecats but ended up with a pair of channels by hatchery accident. The second year they spawned and I had thousands of fry. Not something you want early in the game. Way slowed the growth of the blues.

I like the channel in there to harvest but if I do it over again, I will put them in at year two or three.

I would put in fatheads and shiners and redear at some point. I cast net and don't catch many redears so I think they are getting eaten.

Last year I had a 19.5 pound blue die from low oxygen and I have several blues at about 15 pounds.

Oh yeah, I feed pellets but only one or two cups a day.

Are the large fish in those pay lakes caught are released, or caught and taken out? The fish will tell you how much to feed, feed 2x or 3x/day as much as they will eat in 15 minutes. BG will be a good forage fish.

yes, they are caught and put back, any thing over 10lbs has to go back in. I have heard that blue cats dont do real well in ponds. thats why i was asking about the hybrids. maybe at some point i might harvest some fish out of it but what i really want is to have an abundance of large line breaking rod busting brute of fish in there... maybe a few carp too???

I odn't have any experience with cats other than Channels, and once they get caught a few times they get real hook shy in my pond. I'd stay away from carp. They stir up the bottom, keeping the water muddy and will overpopulate in a pond unless there are LOTS of predators that are large enough to eat them. If memory serves me correctly, I think without aeration you can carry about 500# of fish per acre, which is roughly the size of the pond you are talking about. So, figure out the mazimum size of the fish species that you want to have in the pond. That will tell you how many fish you can stock, allowing room for them to grow. Don't forget to figure in the forage fish as well in the weight calculation.

Blue cats do fine in ponds, they just don't reproduce well in them. For trophy cats, you don't want reproduction. If your sole goal is trophy cats, I'd still go with the blues. Hybrid catfish don't have any higher tolerance to low DO than do CC and blues that I know of.

I am still a huge fan of pellets and golden shiners for the first 3-4 years, then at year 4-5 stocking gizzard shad. Some RES may be a good addition to help keep parasites down and an additional forage for the cats. If you decide to add some flatheads, the addition of BG may be good forage as well, but flatheads love to eat gshad as much as any spine rayed fish.

Plus with stocking the flatheads, the GShad will be prey no matter size they are. Bob Lusk said they e-shocked a flathead with a 3# LMB in it's gullet. The state record GShad in Michigan in in the 4# range!

i have a buddy with a few flatheads in a pond, he said i can have them when im ready and im wondering where I can get a shocker to shock them up when im ready, plus it will help me keep a good eye on my numbers in my pond.

I don't think you'll find one that's relatively safe to use without spending a buttload of $$.

now that the pros are back from the confrance, is there anything else that needs added? I am now thinking that I want a mix of all 3 spices in there. I think im going to start off with about 100 cats total plus the forage base and see if the pond will suport that. I am figering ill have a bit of natural loss just from the stocking..

here is a useful link

http://urbanrancher.tamu.edu/publications/B1319.pdf