Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Stocking new LMB pond w/o Bg?

Hi Joe,

I will GUESS GSH but the picture is very small. If you provide a closeup, I'm sure the guys here can give you a positive ID.

better pictures for sure will help. I do not see curved lateral lines on those larger fish so not sure they are GSH. They may be a different type of shiner? They do seem to have the down turned mouth. Looks like some male fatheads with enlarged heads in spawning season too. I don't see anything that looks like sunfish, bluegill or bass.

I will put a better picture up tomorrow from a computer. My phone won't let me resize the file.

I probably buried my previous post with the ID puzzle, but any input on the stocking rates I was recommended by the fishery, and adding smb now with the yp?

bigger picture (hopefully)

Hi all,
Sorry for the radio silence. It has been a long winter and it's about time to follow up and move on to the next step. I waited the year for the fhm to populate the pond. I ended up stocking around 6-7lbs fhm and 3-4lbs golden shiners. I'll attach pictures of the fish trap contents from my last visit to the pond. It was in for a whole 5 min and came up with dozens of fish.
I spoke to the fish farm today inquiring about their stock. He again recommended 35-40 yp and 35-40 smb. He also recommended I purchase the smb (4-5") now. I think He mentioned that due to availability. I initially figured I'd be putting another pound of fhm, some Crawfish and yp this round. Then come fall stock the smb as suggested here. Any harm to adding the smb now? Is the yp stocking right? The pond again, is approx 150'x150'.

Since you have lots of forage "minnows', you can now stock the SMB and YP. The very best option is to use one or both species as pellet trained. However if pellet trained stockers are not available then use 'regular' fish. If when the bass get to 12", you are seeing significantly fewer minnows and traps catch only a few small fish, then I would remove some of the original stocked SMB to get their numbers fewer and less predatory pressure on the minnows/shiners. SMB in a clean pond can easily eliminate all minnows. SMB at 10" will be spawning at this size and removing some bass and adult perch will be overall beneficial.

Thanks Bill,
The yp are pellet trained, smb are not. The smb are 4-5" fish. I definetly plan on keeping the numbers in check in order to maintain a fhm/gsh population. I also will be adding structure for habitat as opposed to the fish attractors I initially placed. I was thinking of using and old fisher price play castle slide. It's been sitting in the yard unused for some time. I planned on drilling holes and weighing it down with some rocks, after I add some pvc branches and a pallet or two to it. What do you think? I'll post some pictures when I get to it.

I have the option of 2-3" or 4-6" yp. What size would be best? And are the stocking rates different due to size?