Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking plan for new pond

Hi everyone,

I have a new one acre pond about 18-20 deep.( pond habitat here ) Live in NE Indiana and things are warming up. Goal is to have good YP to eat and hopes of some WE, SMB, and HSB for game fish/predators as well as RES. I would estimate the pond is probably already 8 ft deep. When should I start putting forage in, what should I put in, and where do I buy it from? Same for the "real fish". I can pellet feed as well and would like to for the perch but would like to also have a diverse forage base. Also, should I be thinking of aquatic plants to put in as well? Any recommendations there as far as what to choose and where to buy would be welcomed.

Thanks!

Welcome. Firstly rethink your fish balance of predator-prey mix before stocking. You are planning on 3 actually 4 predators including the adult perch and only one long term, breeding forage fish(RES) that has poor reproductive capacity i.e. limited spawning. The common minnow forage is the fathead (FHM). They will disappear soon after you add any bass. I have seen a population of just YP in a pond pretty quickly (2-3yrs) wipe out fatheads. Do a little more homework as to predator-prey relationships. Your plan could work if you keep the number of predators low density per acre (10-20) so only low numbers of small fish forage are needed each year to feed the predators and you stock only pellet trained SMB and HSB. Pellet feeding reduces predation amount of small fish. Walleye are not available as pellet eating stocker fish.

Option is reduce the number of predator species. Option create a huge area of fish refuge 40%-60% of the pond bottom. Option Add a larger forage fish and develop high numbers of golden shiner prior to stocking predators. Option Consider using lake chubsuckers. Option delete SMB use LMB-BG-RES with few HSB-WE. WE&HSB will help decrease numbers of small fingerling bass.

As for prey species, Golden Shiners are usually available from fish sellers. Bluntnose Minnows and some other minnow species are not readily available from fish sellers, but will help diversify the forage base if you can find them from non-standard "pond stocking" sources.

If you will be swimming in the pond, RES are a good choice, but they don't have the fecundity that BG have and BG tend to nip at swimmers.

I know there is a lot of talk about BG overcrowding and stunting in a pond, but I have not seen any doing that lately when there are predators in a pond. Maybe years ago when a lot of the predators were removed for the table and C&R wasn't popular, but I think times are changing and we may have to rethink.....

BUT, like Bill C said, continue to do your homework.