Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Help me adopt my fish family

Take a bow, Bill. You were the mad "stocking" scientist for this project.

Nothing like a well executed plan. I am glad we got a have fun post to go with all the house building !!!!!!

The fish look good.

Great report.

I've always lamented that Brettski doesn't fish his pond.

It may be time to consider some Smallie removal. I might need to commission Rainman to come to your pond and fish out some smallies to take to my pond. Then again, Rainman is not so great of of a fisherman, so I'd have to come also.

You could make a few bucks off of me.

Sunil - a man with your means should think about building a small pond for growing smallies or other desirable fish for resocking into your larger pond. I think you could manage two ponds, based on your management skills and prowess that we see at the PBoss Conventions.

Be sure to tell Rex to leave his guns in the truck. He might try to shoot one of B'ski's m-rats and hit the big windows instead.

Wow Uncle Brettski, the fish look great. I'll bet the relatives were surprised to see the progress you have made on the building!

My sis in-law was disappointed that it wasn't completed
Me too, I guess

Hand the SIL a hammer (or some other construction implement) and have her give it a try. Most folks have no idea what it takes to build a complete structure from the ground up like you have Uncle Brettski.


Oh BTW from now on you're Uncle Brettski to me.

so long as I don't have to read you a bedtime story and tuck you in
(the mental picture I just got makes me shiver)

Okay, no tuck in but the bedtime story is not negotiable.

Careful what you wish for, JHAP.

Brettski can spin a very, very disturbing story.

That's why we don't hear from Fattay anymore.

I appreciate the advice Sunil but I have a thicker skull than FMB so Bski's stories don't have the same effect on me. Besides I can negate the effect by telling him a few of my stories.

I can see - errr hear it now – neoprene cod piece comes to LNP - what a story that would be. --

Yep but Uncle Brettski is too smart to give me any form of directions to his place.

Heck at least Sunil would let me stay in his shed.

In Brettski's defense though I guess there is an viable argument that he does have a nature preserve and I've been told on more than one occasion that there was something about my personality that just seemed to defy nature.

yet nothing worth preserving...

So it's been almost a year... Any recent fishing adventures to see how your fish are progressing? Those SMB may be pushing 20" by now!

I just read through this whole thread and it has given me a lot of hope and excitement for my just-stocked-with-fhm-and-gsh smallmouth pond. Awesome work!

Actually, it was very little work, but many thanks for the props. If any congrats for accomplished work are due, it goes to guys like Bill Cody, Ewest, Bruce Condello, Meadowlark, Theo Gallus, Sunil and DIED for the guidance and encouragement to lay the aquaculture groundwork. Unfortunately, we continue to be consumed with finishing the gar/apt project which leaves very little other time beyond just keeping up with property maintenance. Every year I say we're gonna do something special to get into the fishing end of it, and every year it gets put on the back burner.

Brettski - You been fishing in your pond this year? Is the water clear, cloudy, weedy, and any fish pics???

Hi Bill,
Sorry; missed your post until just now.
Zero fishing that I, or anybody that I know of, has been initiated. The only water sampling that occurs is visual, and that best sampling occurs at the covered dock where the depth is not more than 3 feet. Based on that, and wide landscape views over the surface, the water is consistently on the clear side, maybe about 3 feet visibility. Weeds are on the low side this year, but my water level is down about 26" so I figger they died off around the shoreline once they got exposed and the new zone for growth did not have previous weed growth, hence much less weeds at the shoreline created by this lower depth. Sorry, but no fish pics. There is hope, tho. Yesterday, one of my pals called and wants to come down to see the progress on my projects. He also fishes alot. I wonder what his real motive is...?

A YP dinner - which is a good thing.

Dski and I just hosted a few friends for lunch and some fishin'. It's been months; nay years since we took some decent samples.
The SMB were plentiful. Mostly 16" - 18" and chunky. I told everyone to keep pulling them out. A few hours and the collection basket got pretty crowded.
The surprising thing was a lack of YP. Then, the girls hit the jackpot and pulled out 2 pretty nice specimens. One was 13.5" and the other 14". They were not fat pigs, but not starving. The filets were pretty impressive. A dozen or so RES, but all in the 6" range. I have not seen an RES monster, or anything closely resembling large since they were stocked all those years ago.
Anyway this is the overdue update that I owe Dr Perca.

Nice work on the lake and fish !

I'd be willing to bet those largest YP are the stockers. The predators in the pond are keeping the YOY trimmed back. Time to do more fishing and removing if you want more growth and recruitment.