Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Bass help

We are planning on getting more Large mouth Bass, White Bass, and Wipers.

Rob can get you the LMB and HSB. I'd advise to keep the white bass out. Really add nothing to your pond with the other fish you currently have and will be stocking.

When and how often should we stock HSB?

You're going to get used to the term "it depends". It applies here. Depends on your pond, how many you stock initially, their sizes and how often you harvest, if you harvest at all. Also could depend on how much you fall in love with this fish. Might end up wanting more.

I'll let someone else chime in with initial stocking suggestion numbers.

Cottonwoodbeach....post some pictures of your pond if possible.

The left shore is covered with fallen limber. The right shore is a slow sloping bank into a twenty foot deep pit filled by a spring. The top and bottom shores are shallow and contain big drop offs. The bottom shore is rocky as well.

The pond is a little less than 8 acres

Cottonwoodbeach, that is a gorgeous looking pond!

Stocking HSB as a bonus fish for your pond is a wonderful idea and I am sure they will do good with the shad in there. However, to expect them to control or even make a dent in the over all shad population is unlikely at best. It would take an HSB in the 36"+ range to even consider feeding on a 12" gshad. The gape of their mouths limits their ability to feed on larger fish.

Even if you stocked more HSB per acre than normal, they just aren't gonna make much of a dent. Gizzard shad YOY are extremely fast growing reaching 6"+ by the end of summer. Too big for even HSB that are 2 years of age under normal conditions. So even once you have HSB in the 18" range, the sheer prolific reproductive rate of gizzard shad means they just aren't going to be controlled by HSB.

Is there anyway to lower the shad with out using retenone?

Without using Rotenone

Largemouth bass

Do large mouth bass work effectively?

If you can get a decent percentage over 18".

If I were to use Rotenone in an amount to kill the shad will it effect any other fish species? Like the Bluegills, Channel Catfish, and Largemouth bass

Not if the dosage is correct. GS are sensitive to rotenone, and are affected at lower concentrations than the other fish that you listed.

Plus if done by someone with experience you can treat only the open water near where they are with low dose and not near shore where the BG , LMB etc are. Shad can also be driven (boats and noise) to one end and treated there.

Gill nets work well also in open water. Try to take out the big GShad and the LMB can work on small ones but there have to be enough LMB of the correct size to do that.

Will the rotenone be absorbed into docks, submerged pants and lumber, as well as sand, mud and dirt?

And after the Rotenone detoxifies is it ok to swim in the pond? (Because people currently swim their)

Rotenone is a natural product that inhibits gill absorption of O2. Not a problem with docks , plants , dirt or swimming as noted.

As ewest has noted, it only affects things with gills. IIRC, it originated in South America, and the native people used it to kill fish in streams that they then ate.

They now suggest that using the concentrated product here (not what the indians are using in SA) you not eat the dead fish but a lot of people do so anyway.