Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Maximizing Forage $$$

As mentioned in another thread, we are in the process of digging an 11 acre pond. This forum has been very helpful as I put together the stocking plan. One thing I’m not finding is if the fish stocked per acre should change based on their duration in the pond prior to predator introduction.

If the recommendation is add add BG in the spring at 1000/acre and bass in the fall at 50/acre, does waiting until adding bass the following spring allow me to reduce the BG count? I would imagine so as both the original stocked BG and their year of young are likely both to be a bigger size class than bass could eat and the second year spawn is the primary forage.

If that assumption is correct does it apply to other forages such as FHM and TFS? How much could you reduce stocking rates by to account for the later introduction of LMB?

You can trade time for money. Need to make sure BG have good spawning areas so they can reproduce well prior to introduction of predators like LMB. Generally recommend at least 20 BG for every 1 LMB, but I think 30 to 1 is better still.

FHM have their own special needs for reproduction. If you don't have it, they won't reproduce as well as they should. That happened at my place, plus I mistakenly stocked large tilapia which devoured the FHM before the LMB were stocked.

I think that trade is definitely something I would rather do. We are already planning gravel bed spawn sites for the BG and some pallet structure which I believed I read were good for FHM.

If I shoot for a 30 to 1 ratio at introduction, I would need to know a general spawning success rate for BG to estimate how many I have in the pond after one year?

Sounds like you are on the right track! While you could do an electro-survey to thoroughly check BG numbers, it's a pretty safe bet that they are doing well if you start seeing lots of young of the year in shallow weedy areas.

It all depends on the size of the bluegills that you stock. If you stock 1"-2.5" fish, then no, the numbers will stay the same because it'd be debatable whether they will grow large enough to pull off more than a rudimentary spawn. Now if you were stocking 4"-6" BG, then that's a different story. Maybe Bill Cody or ewest can come up with fecundy rates for different sized BG, I don't know what they are off the top of my head. A 30:1 stocking rate is 1,500:1. It would also depend on the size of the LMB that you will be stocking too. 50 12" LMB would need a different forage base than 50 3" LMB.

I like your general plans but Mama Nature is occasionally a mean old girl re planning on rain in Young County. Be flexible in your thoughts/plans. I’m just down the road in Montague County.

My preference is bluegills stocked simultaneously with fathead minnows. Feed a lot of very small sized pellets. Lots of us prefer Optimal but there are other good feeds. Some feed Cargill and/or Purina.

Bass and cats should be stocked after the prey fish have multiplied sufficiently. I consider “sufficiently” when the bass can go to sleep with its mouth open and wake up with a full belly. That’s generally some time before you get an O2 crash from over stocking.

At some point, cull bass before they overeat their food supply. It’s almost impossible to restock affordable sized bass or prey.

Subscribe to Pond Boss magazine. Lusk comes up with stuff that I didn’t know I should worry about.

I stocked 100 3-6" CNBG per acre 4/30/22 and was catching a lot of 1"+ fry 8/22/22 in my minnow traps. Jump started the forage base to speed up the food chain. I also have 2 feeders on a 3 acre pond to further money whip them.

I traded time for numbers because I was stocking a 35 acre lake. Bob Lusk helped with the numbers , 350 lbs FHM, 14000 CNBG ang 1450 RES in the spring. Stocked 1500 4" LMB the next November (year and a half later). So far growth of the LMB has been great. Be sure to have a management plan for harvest.