Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations New Yellow Perch Pond Stocking

Having a 1/2 acre pond dug next month and was wondering how long should i let the pond settle before stocking my FHM and BNM?
How may pounds of each should I stock? They will have the run of the place till October/November when I stock 200 4-7 inch Yellow Perch.

I have done a lot of research on here to the point my girlfriend is ready to leave me so I thought I better just ask what I need to know!

What will the minnows feed on this summer? What should I be feeding them?

I'm in the thumb of Michigan
Pond will be 15' deep and be a water table pond.

Love the site and am on here way to much but I want to do this right the first time. Thanks

Not sure what BNM is, maybe "bluntnose minnows"? If so, those are similar to fathead minnows. Stock ten pounds of each, and make sure they have spawning substrate...they both like to stick their eggs to the underneath sides of firm objects, boards, rocks, PVC pipe...whatever you have, in shallow water. They'll graze on periphyton, which grows on the underwater substrate you provide. They'll also feed on small organisms growing near the pond bottom. If you can feed them, they'll come to fish food, too.

Wolverine! Hearty welcome from another pond lover in MI. I'm near GR, MI. Hopefully you can find the answers you need. I'd love to help so message me if you have any questions.

I'd love to know how you are able to source BNM? I'd love to get more of those in my pond. You are very wise in being patient and building the forage. I'm starting year 3 and about ready to consider a single, carefully selected predator fish.

My FHM didn't survive once my YP went in which means I probably put my YP in a bit early, but most posters here would say that FHM can't survive no matter how much of a headstart you give them once panfish and YP arrive unless they have a tremendous amount of vegetative cover.

I have had good recruitment of GSH and now have all age and size classes up to a size where I don't have to worry about the adults being forage for any future predator. I have clouds of GSH minnows and hope to have a few million more this year.

I stocked 100 feed trained YP (in a pond half the size of yours) and am very happy with their growth. Some of the 3 year olds were moved to another pond and were nearly 12", the 2 year olds who will be in their 3rd growing year hopefully will hit 10-12" this summer. They have tons of minnows, young sunfish and pellets to eat.

You could stock 50-100 (or even less) and be fine with no predators. Getting a variety of sizes would be important. Some 6" so that you can get an early spawn and some smaller sizes to save on cost would be fine. Since you have no predators, if you bought the YP now you could ask the seller if they could try to select a few gravid larger females and the amount of young they would produce would be great. You could probably get them in the next 1-2 weeks and still have them drop eggs in your pond.

I've had to REMOVE hundreds of eggs to control their population in my pond.

Many of us are trying to source cold tolerant PK shrimp which if you can find and stock would be a great time to stock and get them started.

Crayfish also are a consideration.

I didn't intend for this but an invasive snail got in when my well-intending neighbor bucket stock the 'leftovers' from his aquarium before moving out of the neighborhood. I harvest adult Chinese snails by the 5 gallon bucket, but the blessing has been that they bear live young snails and the perch's guts are stuffed to the gills with these snails

You should be close to several YP providers. I believe Imlay City Fish Farm would be closest to you.

Now is a good time to consider and plan for aeration and for structure as well unless you hope to have vegetation or other natural cover to help sustain the young fish.

Consider your fish hierarchy and goals ahead of time. I chose to purposely avoid BG or HBG (like the plague) and to avoid LMB (like the pestilence) so had to choose a less prolific panfish, YP, LCS and hope to select a non-reproducing apex predator.

hope we can help you and we'd love to see pictures

Bob yes Bluntnose minnow, not sure if BNM was right. Thank you for the quick response. I really enjoy the Facebook live on wednesday nights.
Can I put the minnows in right after the pond is dug? I expect it to fill pretty quickly or should i wait a month for it to settle?

Canyoncreek...I was told by a local baitshop guy I could easily get bluntnose minnows in minnow traps in the creeks close to me that come off of the Flint River and Holloway Reservior. He said crayfish would be an easy get to and I plan on putting 50 of them in as I trap them.

I plan on putting in pallets, spruce tree branches and stone in the shallows for spawning.

Yes Imlay City fish farm is 15 minutes away so it convenient.

Is 200 YP to many? I've kinda coppied DonO's plan and liked his results.

If I do get a YP spawn next spring then I will put in 10-15 under 10" Walleye.

This will be a YP only pond. Walleye and SMB will be added if needed to control the YOY YP.

I think CC is saying you can also limit YP populations by pulling the egg ribbons before they hatch instead of adding predators.

Ask Bill Cody to help you out, too.

In good soil and quick filling from a creek or ditch, the water should settle in 2-3wks providing the banks have stone around the top 4-6ft of bank slope. With dirt banks, wave action and bare water shed, these will keep the pond silt somewhat suspended and settling will be slow. If you pump water for filling run the water down a tarp to reduce the amount of silt that collects into the water. When you can see around 1ft deep in the pond FHM and other minnows can be added. By then phytoplankton and zooplankton should be flourishing. FHM will start spawning when water is 60F. BNM will not be for sale by any fish farms. Native fishes suppliers have them but they are very expensive. You will have to collect your own and they should be common in MI streams as the bait shop mentioned. Also check the Holloway Res for them; maybe trying using a bread baited drop net. Crush up pellets and this can serve as good food for growing minnows most of the summer while they reproduce adn fry become abundant. Natural minnow & small fish foods will grow quickly within weeks in a new pond.

Make sure your Imlay City YP will be pellet trained for producing the best perch. I would start with the 4"-6" YP in the fall and stock 150-200. If available you can substitute some 6"-8" in the initial stocking for harvesting some of them in 2019. All should spawn in spring of 2019. With regular high protein food feeding, harvest, and good management you should not need other predators to maintain a annual harvest of nice 8"-12" YP. One male bass or walleye will eat plenty of YP for control in a 1/2 ac YP pond. A few predators that grow larger than 16" will put a big decrease on numerous larger perch 5"-7" that could be harvested the next year.

Wolverine (Are you the Hugh Jackman kind?):

Ensure you can correctly identify the BNM you are extracting from local streams, as you do not want to introduce any undesirable species such as bullheads into your new pond.

There are also undesirable crayfish species that you won't want (the Rusty Crayfish, IIRC), but IME identifying the many different crayfish species requires a Bill Cody level of knowledge and intellect - I settled for only putting crawdads into my ponds that I caught so close to them, they could have made it on their own.