Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose New pond stocking

Hi everyone! I would like to stock my 2 acre pond with blue catfish and hybrid striped bass. I like to know what else I should stock for forage. I also plan to feed the HSB and BC aquamax.

Standard FHM and GSH as forage. I would go heavy on the GSH. If you can source silversides(inland or brook) they could also be a great forage fish for HSB. Your pond is a bit too small to support gizzard shad which could be considered once good numbers of HSB are 8+ pounds and BC are 10+ pounds.

Should I stock bluegill as well? Or would a combination of FHM and GSH along with supplemental feeding be sufficient?

I think it would be sufficient contingent upon if you have good spawning and nursery habitat for GSH.

Thank you very much for your replies! What are your recommended stocking amounts?

Are you willing to aerate along with feeding the fish?

Yes I am willing to aerate if I need to.

If you want to grow large HSB in a 2 acre pond, you really have to...

Okay I will plan on aerating.

How many pounds of GSH and FHM should I stock? How many BC and HSB should I stock?

I replied to your other duplicate post, but I'm moving my answer here and deleting the other thread to keep all the answers in one place.

What is your budget for fish?

I would bide my time, stock a bunch of GSH & FHM, making sure they were firmly established in the pond and reproducing before stocking predators. I would also implement a feeding program. You want the forage fish to be thick enough to walk across the water without sinking in to the water. I'd also reaserch fertilization, and make sure the pond had a very good bloom going. The pond is a little on the small side, but I would also look into Threadfin shad as another forage fish.

HSB don't have a huge gape compared to LMB, and the 3 fish that you listed would all be considered predators. With the boom/bust spawning of Crappie, I'd be too afraid of a bust year, then what would the BC and HSB have to eat? Crappie might grow too quick, for the HSB to utilize for any prolonged length of time. Think of a more fusiform fish. I don't know if YP would provide enough forage either.

The pond is 2 ac, but how deep is it?

Only a few BC and a laddered approach to HSB with feeding. RES and GShiners and FH. You can add a few HBG if you like. I would skip the crappie. There are other options as well but the more species the more complicated for stocking and results.

I believe the pond is an average of 10 feet deep. I don't really have a budget for stocking. My goal is just to find out what would be best to stock and do exactly that.

I would like to add more than just a few BC. I want to make this pond a put and take fishery, and I would like to add blue cats because of their fast growth rates and their great taste.

How many to stock? Like all things ponds, that depends. I don't know what the conversion rate is for catfish, but a LMB needs 10# of fish to put on 1 pound.

Using that figure, it'd be easy to figure out how many forage fish you had to add.

Just remember that lots of fish and fish food = high nutrient loading, which leads to algae problems or submerged weed problems if you don't get a good bloom established to block the sunlight from reaching the pond bottom.

Without pushing it too much, if you have supplemental feeding and a good aeration system, you could probably have 500# of fish per acre. Figure 1:10 by weight predator to prey. Or 1:20 for faster predator growth.

How many HSB and BC do you suggest I stock?

How many do you plan on removing every year?

How many do you suggest I stock and remove each year?

As Bill Cody says, "it depends".

If it was my pond, I'd make sure that I stocked the same number of fish or very close to the same number of fish that I removed every year.

That removal number is strictly up to you. Only you can decide how many to stock, because the # of fish depend on what each one weighs. What each fish weighs at stocking all depends on your patience and pocketbook. If you're a patient person, you can stock smaller ones and let them grow. Just don't put more fish in the pond than it can carry (see carrying capacity in the archives for a more detailed definition).

Problem is BC can be hard to manage by harvest. It only takes one wise one to fill up a small pond. At 70 lbs it would make mgt very hard. As a result you have to take them all (each one in time) out before they get big.

Would 100 HSB per acre and 100 BC per acre be a doable amount?

I'd say half that maybe even less on the BC..

Okay. What do you reccomend I stock for forage?

If they're so difficult to manage should I just give up on the blues and go with channels instead?

I have 1 BC imy 1 acre pond that weighs in over 20lbs. Let me tell ya hes cool to watch but he goes through the aquamax fast.