Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Leaky pond: making lemonade - warmouth?

My 4th pond leaks, which is no doubt a result of being unable to seal sand veins with my small equipment (like quicksand and caved in badly when trying to dig out, and a bit dangerous). I have 3 well-sealed ponds (BG/LMB pond, SMB/YP pond, and a 3rd which is a future crappie/blue-catfish pond). While I may try to seal my 4th pond at a later date with Soilfloc, I will wait a few years to get a feel of how the water level fluctuates (last year was worst drought year so far in terms of drop in my other 3 ponds). I have FHM in this 4th pond and am thinking of adding warmouth since they appear to tolerate large water fluctuations, but am looking for other suggestions or complimentary species. Looking for something different from my other 3 ponds and would be nice to have something fun to catch if possible (warmouth seems to fit that purpose). This is about 0.4 acres when at full pool and is connected to a 0.4 acre wetland built at the same time which did not go dry last summer, but the connection to the pond area was severed. Only interested is species that will spawn. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

It still looks nice to me!

I'll let TJ chime in here when he gets back from vacation next week, but from my understanding the less organic material that is on the pond bottom, the higher your chances are of having the polymer product work. In other words, seal it sooner than later.

RAH,

When you say the 4th pond leaks (probably through the sand stringers), did it stay at the same level as the adjacent wetland?

You said the pond is connected to the wetland, but the connection was severed during the drought. Was that a "surface connection" that was severed? If the pond and wetland drew down during your summer drought and stayed at approximately the same level throughout, then a subsurface connection remained intact.

That should be sufficient for your long-term goals, especially if your warmouth can tolerate the fluctuating pond levels.


Are the warmouth intended to be the top predator in this pond? If so, what is your planned food chain for them? If we knew that, then maybe some of the good "fish" people on PB could give you some speculative ideas for other fish.

P.S. Do you have a warmouth supplier in the area, or are you going to have to start with a small amount of bucket-stocked warmouth?

FishinRod - Pond and wetland dropped just below the surface connection level so I assume that they were connected subsurface since the exposed surface in between was loose mud. I just thought of warmouth since I think that I can catch them in another one of my wetlands that gets inflow from a stream during very high flooding (maybe every 5-10 years). My neighbor identified the warmouth quite a few years back when he caught a bunch, and now that I know how to tell them apart from green sunfish, I think that if they are still in there, I'll know the difference. Of course, maybe they were not warmouth originally. Not really sure what part of the food chain they might end up being (if I can catch some). That is part of why I made the original post to see what ideas folks might come up with. Getting some of these less common hatchery fish is quite a challenge. Still have found no source for pumpkinseed either. Fun to think about during the cold weather... Got a call from a friend saying a mutual acquaintance just dug a 2 acre pond and is looking for stocking advice. Thanks to this forum, I think I can help him with either LMB/BG or SMB/YP recommendations (after he gets some FHM going). He might also want CC in a LMB pond and could consider GSH in a SMB pond. I have been very happy with the results of these 2 pond types on my place. Not overstocking is probably the best advice I had to learn.

RAH, if things go the way they are planned, I will have a small production pond this Fall that I will be stocking with Pumpkinseed Sunfish brood stock.

Right now my 3rd pond only has FHM, LCS, and spotfin shiners, but very few plants. If I had a few more plants, I think that pumpkinseed would have a good chance of doing well. This 0.4 acre pond has very little watershed and is primarily spring fed, so I think it has low fertility right now. There seem to be quite a few very small fish in it though, so they must be eating something. I need to spend some time seeing what is in nearby streams.

What is in the streams won't flourish in the ponds, two completely different habitats.

Many stream fish do great in ponds, but some do not. Consider LMB, BG, SMB, CC, etc.

RAH, just because those fish can live in a stream doesn't mean that they will flourish there, and the reverse is true for fish that have adapted to living in streams and rivers. For instance, take Rainbow Trout. They do well in lakes but need flowing water for spawning habitat. I have yet to see a LMLB, BG or SMB nest in the flowing portion of the water in a stream or river. Spawn in a quiet backwater, yes. CC are cavity nesters, so they can survive in streams and rivers by hollowing out nesting sites.

SMB are considered stream fish but do great in ponds. IMO, it depends on the species.

Just wondering what other choices you could have besides warmouth or rock bass.

White Bass?

Walleye? (but maybe would not reproduce)

Gar?

Northern Pike or Pikerel?

Freshwater Drum?

Snakehead?

I think that chain pickerel would be cool, or even grass pickerel. Gar too. Don't really know much about the others in terms of pond use.

Another potential thought is to try and create a 'mean-mouth' bass, the combination between Smallmouth and Largemouth.

One male of one species, and a female of the other species....

Good news that your wetland should aid your pond water level against a future drought. That should make it worth your time and money to start a new fishery.

I think that warmouth eat more invertebrates at all stages of their life cycle than most of the other sunfish. You might have fun making a pond to optimize production of the tiny invertebrates all of the way up to crayfish.

However, I think a well-fed population of warmouth would be prone to stunting. (Hopefully, an actual expert will chime in if you keep advancing this project.) If stunting is going to be a potential problem, then you will have to add a top predator.

Will flooding conditions be capable of allowing fish to move from this pond into any of your other ponds or wetlands? If not, then you can stock with any large predators that you desire.

Many people on the forum have very specific fish goals and plans for their ponds. In my recollection, you do NOT manage your ponds in that manner. Perhaps you could run your warmouth pond as a fun experiment for you.

Consider adding some top predators with a smaller mouth gape. Hopefully, they would clean up many of the smaller warmouth and allow a few "trophy" warmouth to exist in your pond.

A few HSB might be a good option. Supplement with a few gar? Shortnose gar shouldn't get too big in your pond, and could eat a lot of smaller warmouth. I think they also eat invertebrates. You could also add a few of either type of pickerel. You could even add a few walleye. Watching all of your top predators grow in your pond could be part of your enjoyment.

Aren't your ponds mostly fished by friends of your family? I would think the warmouth would be pretty aggressive most of the year. Little kids could probably catch 25 on worms on a good day and have a blast at your pond. (You could also cull some at this stage, as needed.) If you have older kids or adults at your pond, then your few top predators could be a rare bonus fish - that would give them a good fight and a good picture for their Facebook page!

Good luck on your 4th pond project. It sounds like it could be lots of fun!

Do you have an estimate on depth of the pond? I understand it fluctuates?

Start with things you have access to already (like for sure see if you can get a reproducing population of Lake Chubsuckers in there plus your other forage base.

I agree that more of us 'northern' pond owner need to push the boundaries with walleye. If YP can survive in my shallow small pond and do well, then walleye might surprise us too. So far it is too early for me to report back progress on my experiments. I know they won't reproduce but probably the pike, pickerel, musky, dogfish, freshwater drum and gar won't either and that is OK. They are bonus fish!

Chain and grass pickerel should spawn if I can get plants growing well. If I can catch the LCS from one of my other 2 ponds that have them, I'll move some over. There is a deep hole in my 4th pond which is probably 12' deep at full pool, but it dropped almost 6' before it started raining again. However, this year was the furthest any of my other ponds ever dropped before, with my 3rd pond, which is sealed like a drum, dropping nearly 3'. Both my 3rd and 4th ponds have very little watershed and are spring fed for part of the year.

Maybe if you do go the Warmouth/Rock Bass route, you could also do one of each sex of SMB and LMB and maybe get a population of meanmouth.

Too many mean-mouths in the world already:)