Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Existing Pond Options

Wife and I are almost done with the process of buying land with 2 ponds. We were up there last weekend and I was tossing a yellow beetlespin 1/16th size for an hour or two, to see what was in the ponds.

Had "bites" 1/2 of ,my casts and caught what looked like a 5-inch redear/shellcracker out of the smaller pond (3/4 acre). There were multiple schools of tiny fry swimming around and not much was bothering them. These things were 1/4 inch long tiny.

Had bites on about every cast in larger pond (1.6-1.6 acre) - caught 6 or so 4-5 inch bluegill and 2 crappie (6 and 10 inches - 10 incher looked a little lean). Wife threw a biscuit in the water and it was like a piranha movie. Had one fish on that might have been a bass as it actually fought some but hook pulled. There were some schools of tiny fry here too, not as many as smaller pond.

I suspect that the landowner did his best to catch all the good/larger fish out of the ponds - real estate lady said ponds are full of bass. Kinda hard for a bass to turn down a spinnerbait lure like a beetle spin. If the ponds were loaded with bass, I'da caught one or two anyway.

Like the idea of having crappie in the pond - they are fun to catch and fry up nice - would allow more of a harvest than bass. With the 10-inch fish looking lean, starting to wonder about forage but it could just be that the bluegills are eating everything.

As for the bluegill, there are a bunch and I'm wondering if maybe they are stunted.

Not sure where to go from here.

Still don't know pond depth, pH, etc.

Will bring over a 12 ft aluminum boat and leave it there - will use down and side scan sonar for depth and see if there is much structure in the ponds. Also have LiveScan to check out the fish numbers.

Also like the idea of installing solar-powered aeration

Any books I should be reading?

I not sure I would leave a boat on land that I don’t yet own.

Won't be up there again until we own it. Week or two from closing.