Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking Crayfish and FMH and Gams

I recently posted about having a SMB / YP / RES pond. I am looking long term patience....

Would it be best to throw in the FMH, Gams and Crayfish a half year or year ahead of time before introducing the YP and RES?

Also has anyone had issues with crayfish causing leaks or burrowing through shoreline? My pond is dug, no liner....really good clay and no issues holding water.

Put the FHM's in as soon as you can and give them a year to do what they do...you will be amazed at the amount of reproduction. Just make sure to put in plenty of structure for them to lay eggs on. I used 7 stacks of 2 or three pallets each in my 1/4 acre pond worked very well. Now, the FHM's in the pond at the time of stocking fingerlings will be too big for the YP to eat, but they (the FHM's) will produce an army of fry that will boos the growth of the newly stocked YP.

As for crawdads, I put in way too many the year before stocking the game-fish and spent all last year trapping them out. I will be trapping them this year too. If I could get a do-over. I would have stocked the crawdads at the same time as the fingerling game-fish OR maybe the year after. My overstocked crawdads went in the pond from 1" to 3 inches long and grew to 5" long, reproduced, and their offspring outgrew the gap of my game-fish....then they all reproduced again. I do not see any smaller craws as, I believe, they get eaten for the most part. I ended up with a couple thousand that were too big for my game fish to eat. My pond has about 25% of the shoreline lined with riprap and that seems to make them happy, too happy maybe...lol. I stocked the northern Virile crawdads and they do not burrow. The only craws that I know that burrow are the ones that live in the fields and rarely frequent ponds. There's no reason to stock those kind...they will leave the water for your yard. yikes!

I cannot speak for GAM's, I have no experience with them.

That's perfect, thank you. I have a dozen or so pallets to put in and half dozen Christmas trees. Also Will be putting in rock structures this spring

I am still reading up on Gams....just seen it suggested on here a few times, plus anything designed to eat mosquitos is perfect in my book.

What fish do you have in your 1/4 acre?

HSB and HSB. Oddly enough the HSB don't seem to like crawdads. I did put in a single LMB and a single Crappie a couple summers ago...haven't seen them since.

There should be spotted bass in your area (to catch). Try putting a few of those in if you are confident in sexing bass.

They should make a dent in your excess crawdads.

Edit - That reply was intended to be directed at Quarter Acre.

I put crays in before I had any fish that were big enough to eat the crays.
The crays wiped out all of my wonderful APW and sago.
Had I known that was going to happen I would have waited at least a year after the fish were stocked before I put crays in.

I dipped a couple dozen GAMs out of the marsh and put them in the pond. They have done well, and multiplied in their numbers.