Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? Reworking two old ponds

I have two old ponds on the farm that I have had to drain and recore the dams. I am starting the renovations next month. Each pond is roughly 1 1/2 acre. The west pond has 20 or so cypress trees in it. It averages 4-1/2 feet deep and is full of 45 years of muck. My plan for this pond is to deepen it around the edges and remove as much muck as I can. The east pond is 6 feet deep and is a bowl. I want to deepen it and add some bottom contours.

I am looking for ideas for what to stock in these ponds. I already have two bass/ bream ponds one 4-1/2 and one 3/4 acre and a 1/2 acre catfish pond. So what I really want y'all to help me with is finding another stocking plan. What would y'all do? Go crazy!

How about several minnow species left to make babies for 2 years and then a few single sex crappie to gorge themselves?

Res, yp, smb

How about BG/HSB pond? The BG may overpopulate in Georgia...

Yp and Smb don't grow good down here.

How easy is it to sex crappie?

HBG/HSB/RES with FHM and GSH.

I can only sex crappie when they are in spawning colors or have eggs/milt.

How easy is it to sex crappie?

If you have a crappie lake nearby you can catch a bunch just before spawn and give them a new home.

I worry about them going downstream and causing issues.

You might be suprized how well SMB can tolerate the heat. Some have been doing well in TX.

YP,
Remarks: Although Yerger (1977) and Lee et al. (1980 et seq.) considered this species to be introduced into the Apalachicola River in Florida, it may actually be native. Because the Apalachicola drainage was not adequately sampled in early years, introduced status may be incorrectly assumed for some species. Yellow perch was first collected in the Mobile basin circa 1850, long before any stocking took place, indicating the species was native to this region. This record was overlooked by Lee et al. (1980 et seq.). Hence, Perca flavescens may be native to eastern Gulf drainages in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, not introduced. Populations in Atlantic coastal drainages of Georgia, such as the Altamaha and Savannah, have been reported (Dahlberg and Scott 1971b) to be introduced. In fact we believe these populations are more likely native

Source:
http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.aspx?speciesID=820

Bobby' that's interesting but not near as unusual as what you are doing. I had to chuckle about the comment that was a "pretty good sized one". You should post a couple of pics of Cecils YP, they'de probably think they were some form of saltwater YP.

I think the SMB will grow in So.Georgia if you can maintain good clearer water quality with no stagnant water and no summer fish kill type conditions. Also consider HSB. The main feature to growing SMB is to keep ALL LMB out of the pond, then smallies can usually do okay if the pond is not hypereutrophic with regular bluegreen algae scumj forming blooms. If neither predators work out, you can always add LMB-BG and still have a quality fishery as the LMB-BG will usually eventually crowd out original stockers.

Your experiences will be learning experiences for all of us.

speckled sea trout or southern flounder might be cold tolerant enough in that area (S. GA), they tend to be the most cold toerant out of my salty friends. Red fish/drum can be more cold sensitive in fresh water but might be worth stocking a couple to find out.. this along with some HSB would be pretty unusual.

Bobby' that's interesting but not near as unusual as what you are doing. I had to chuckle about the comment that was a "pretty good sized one". You should post a couple of pics of Cecils YP, they'de probably think they were some form of saltwater YP.

Sorry bout the double post. Bill Cody thinks that I may be hittin the juice or eating tainted fish but that ain't so. I have this God given talent to be kinda dense.

If I could get yp and Smb would they grow faster in this climate?

not sure about faster,,... Longer growing season for sure, so possibly larger size in one year cycle , Why not

Bobby what do you think about adding a few bull sharks just for the fun of it? Would they survive the winter?

Does any one know where the closet sorce for yp and Smb would be for me?

You might have to have some shipped to you.,
But if you could get them started, I think that would be pretty cool. I always wanted to see if I could get a few.

Can you get sterile crappie? that sounds ideal. I have heard of other species commercially available as sterile

So six months later something is finally happening. What I failed to say earlier is that my county road department was going to be the ones to dig the pond out. Well after lots of stroys about being there next week they finally showed up. The first pond is just over 1-1/2 acre. And where the excavator sits it is 3-1/2' deep at full pool. They are taking out 8' of dirt as far as the excavator can reach.and will be going 700 linear feet along the bank. I am so excited that I can hardly stand it. Here's a pic. I will keep everyone updated.

Ok. So the county road department got through, and left the pond in a mess but they did move a lot of dirt out. So we started last week cleaning and shaping. Here is a video of the progress so far. YouTube changed the quality so the pic is a little off but you can get the jist. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CvTMtobuTmI

Very cool Cray. I really enjoyed the inputs from your co-commentator!