Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose New pond stocking

My pond is 5 acres, only thing in it is the FHM we stocked this spring
I read all the time about over stocking SMB or LMB,
Seen many posts about suggested numbers to start with

My question is, is there such thing as under stocking ? Pros and Cons
Say 50 acre as opposed to the standard 100 acre?

Only posting a photo because I’m reading a lot about people having issues
Doing so

My only problem with”under” stocking is that you will have some mortalities with any numbers. In 5 acres, I would generally stock more than 100. But, that depends on the forage base.

If your goal is to have generally larger fish (either LMB or SMB), then go with less fish per acre. The less fish per acre, the longer the fatheads will serve as a good forage base. You may get another year out of the fatheads as other forage fish get factored into the mix.

Also, are you wanting both LMB and SMB, or one or the other?

Smallies are expensive. If you are confident the stockers are healthy and the supplier says they will replace any that die, then is is okay to stock fewer per acre. Fewer per acre as mentioned will grow faster. Growing to larger sizes will depend on how well you manage their numbers and how well you provide all the food that they can eat as they grow larger. Larger bass do not grow real well eating mainly fathead minnows. Once SMB reproduce then there are a lot more mouths to be eating "up" the forage base. The total available forage base affects how well and how big the bass grow. IMO for stocking SMB, it is okay to stock 25-50 per acre as fingerlings. And fewer 15-25/acre when stocking juveniles (5"-8") is okay in my opinion. Stocking density is affected by how much forage base is available to the new SMB. Bass growth as a rule tends to slow way down once the bass reproduce and those young bass are now consuming the forage basis.

Quote from a wise PBoss Member " I seriously believe SMB would almost rather starve than eat BG. I removed all but a few adult BG from a grow out I'm stocking 8-12" SMB in for breeders next year and although the pond is full of small BG, the SMB were starting to look a bit thin so I dumped 45lbs of 2.5-3.5" GSH in. I've been trapping BG by the hundreds from 1" to 2.5" and am now seeing the occasional SMB and they are fat, but it isn't the BG adding that weight, I've seen way too many GSH tails in their throat."

Stocking fewer but larger initial stocker fish like LMB or SMB will work - a lot better than overstocking. Assuming enough forage (if not then don't stock) you will be managing the offspring of the stocker predators not so much the original fish. Fewer original predators moves the date of over reproduction off for a year +-. In addition with larger stocker fish you have better first year growth and less risk with unknown mortality than with 2 in stockers. IMO you need another type of fusion form (minnow) type forage - maybe GSH.

There is plenty of forage, bluegill, crayfish, pellets and FHM.
Only planning on stocking 250 bass up front
You confirmed my thought of pushing back reproduction numbers a year

The main reasoning for this post was, I have read a lot of stuff about standard stocking numbers, overcrowding, culling, etc. so I was curious about what if you start with less to begin with ?
Are the predators going to starve or be thin because the forage has more room to hide, is everything going to be bigger because they have more room to stretch their legs

If the pond does now have BG then eventually after 5-8 years you may need to stock largemouth to control the overabundant smallish close to sizes of stunted BG. It is a challenge for SMB to control the prolific wide body roundish shaped BG. BG quickly outgrow the preferred prey size of smallmouth. Numerous members here have dealt with that problem. Annual seining and manual removal of lots of small BG tends to delay the BG overpopulation problem. For good success it takes diligent management.

Or......add some Saugeye to control the BG.

I think you probably need to write a macro to auto-paste that quote into most threads!

I am really looking to forward to our future pond reports where saugeye have been stocked into ponds with stunted forage species.

The state of Kansas has 15 years+ of documents of success and is something that, until now hasn't been available to private stocking-as you already know. I hope we can get some of these out there in the hands of guys with just this issue. We have 3 control ponds within 30 miles of me that we have been working for 2 years, the 3rd pond is 3/4acre and gets the first stocking in about a week here with 8" SAE. The 2 ac pond has shown progress on growth rates of ave size sampled (BG) and the best thing is there are no LMB..All SMB in that one.

Snipe,

I've seen examples where LMB successfully controlled BG and also where they didn't. Where LMB don't control BG sufficiently this tends to be water where LMB standing weights (and numbers) are below what BG productivity can support. Overstocking, reducing harvest, are ways to help the LMB in such cases. I see the SAE as a way to overstock predators ... especially ... where LMB (or more LMB) are unwanted. Are SAE as easily caught as LMB? If not, that's another plus when one wants to keep them in the water to consume overabundant prey. Seems like you mentioned they preferred lepomis? By this I presumed they most often are found in stomach contents. Lepomis rest on bottom at night and relative to things like shad and minnows would be especially vulnerable to predators at night. Not sure if that makes a difference to SAE but it would seem a good match.

Thanks for all the replies.
This Whole pond stocking, Guessing what nature has in store for your particular situation is so much fun to learn about.
So many different trains of thought. And to think back on May 1, 2023 I thought you just threw fish in water and watched them grow.
I can not thank Mr. Lusk enough for returning my call and getting me in touch with who I now feel is one of, if not the most awesome Kansas Fish biologist ever.
This Forum and the people who respond are also full of helpful information that makes learning about fish in ponds even more exciting
Now if the temperatures would cool down we can get fish transported and on to making a fun fishery for me and my family

BTW this will be a lightly stocked SMB and LMB pond