Okiefish16 says: “I live in Moore, ok and my pond is .25 acre and 12ft deep when full. Right now it is about 7' to 8' deep.” “I would like to put HSB, BG and CC in it.” . . . . “I do plan on feeding and we do plan on taking fish out to eat.”
There has been lots of activity on your topic since yesterday, which has lengthened my reply, so it took longer than I planned. As U are experiencing with your topic, everyone here has an opinion about your project. Some are keeping it to themselves. If U look long enough, U will eventually find someone who will tell U exactly what U want to hear. There are many combinations of fish that can be used successfully in a small pond. Now here is what I think will help U to hopefully give U some more background info, some additional things to consider and hopefully not confuse U more than U already are.
STOCKING – Decisions – Decisions. Always remember this - The good thing about your pond is that it is small and starting over will be relatively easy when you decide to make minor or major changes.
Since I understand that U plan anticipated heavy harvest, U are almost forced to a put-and-take fish stocking situation. A 0.25 acre pond has a hard time naturally producing enough fish annually to allow a sizable fish harvest each year.
Everyone has favorite fish.
Since you have decided to feed your fish to optimize growth rates, then having a reproducing, self perpetuating forage fish is not as important to help feed the predators, compared to hyb bgill that have a pretty limited production of offspring. Remember if U go with Hyb Bgill, then as you harvest them, they will have to be purchased & replaced on a regular basis to maintain their numbers, so U constantly have a crop of larger panfish to harvest and eat. Also remember that restocking small sized Hyb bgill makes them very vulnerable to predation losses and this can affect how many that U purchase each time, and how well or how many will survive to a harvestable size. Depending on your predator fish numbers and predator sizes, U may find yourself frustrated at trying to restock hyb gill and getting them to NOT BECOME FISH FOOD. The most difficult part is usually locating a hatchery that sell restockers that are large enough (5”-8”) to avoid predation by 14”-15” or larger predators.
If U decide to stock regular bgill then they will continually reproduce and can, with regular feeding and proper management, grow to big sizes of 9”-10” in 4-5 yrs. Decisions - decisions.
Predators. CC and HSB – Expect neither one to do much at naturally replacing their numbers when lost to natural death or harvest. CC, can with proper spawn structure, ample REFUGE cover, and lack of predatory pressure, provide recruitment of numbers. HSB - never expect reproduction. Both fish, as they are sold by almost every hatchery, are raised to eat fish food. So locating stocker fish at least initially should not be a big problem. Locating larger sized replacement fish may be more challenging.
In a small pond such as yours, with an intended annual harvest rate, your most feasible solution is to annually or semiannually replace a similar amount or number that are harvested. This often means stocking larger sized individuals if predation losses are likely. However, locating larger stocker fish is sometimes difficult unless you are lucky enough to live near a fish farm that typically sells larger sized fish. Predation losses due to existing fish eating newly stocked fingerling fish is a real problem especially in a small pond. Pellet trained LMB if available in your neighborhood is also another put-and-take fish to consider. But remember that LMB with their larger mouths and strong appetites will require the use of even larger sizes of replacement fish.
As Joey suggested, consider stocking 10”-14”, put-and-take trout during late fall every year or three. These fish will feed well on fish food all winter and will provide lots of enjoyment during the cold and cool season, plus provide ample food for the table from October until about late May in Oklahoma.
Stock Now or Later. Since you are using well water to fill this pond, initially it will be nutrient poor. What ever fish you decide to stock make sure that it has been previously trained to eat fish food. A new well-water pond has low potential to grow fish due to low fertility. I think stocking minnows is optional since U should be essentially planning a put and take fishery. Minnows will, in cases similar to yours be short lived and they are not very efficient at growing or producing body mass of predatory fish. The fish that you are considering to stock are CC, BG-(hy-bgill) and HSB, all species that readily accept and grow well on artificial food. When it comes to raising fish for the table, fish food has a much higher food conversion ratio than live fish. Consider efficient use of your invested dollar. The choice is yours.
Trees – Two vs Many in a Small Pond. Fine twigged trees deteriorate fairly quickly and need to be regularly replaced if denser structure is desired long term (10+ yrs). Dr Dave Willis published an article in Pond Boss magazine about how Christmas trees degrade over time in a pond (Nov-Dec 2004 - SPRUCE UP YOUR POND by D.Willis. Selection, placement, anchoring methods, and aging / duration of Christmas trees as structure for fish.). You and others that are interested may want to study and contemplate this article.
However I question the need and value of a using a couple to just a few small twiggy trees in a small 0.25 acre pond. Why? A couple trees or one or two isolated artificial structures are, as ewest notes and as practically all applicable literature states, are primarily placed as fish attractors. In a 0.25 acre pond, why does one need fish attractors? Standing in any one or two spots on a 0.25 pond, I can probably cast to just about every spot in a pond this small. Where are the fish going to go to avoid a lure?. In a 0.25 acre pond, why does an angler need to attract or concentrate the fish? How far can they go, or how isolated can they become in such a small body of water? But if it makes you feel better to have some “fish structure” in a small pond then by all means install it, but after numerous years evaluating fish attractors in small ponds, I don’t think they are all that beneficial at helping the pond produce more fish.
NOW, if you are adding structures to become REFUGE areas for small fish, then that is an altogether DIFFERENT story or topic than using structure for just fish attractors. There is a big difference between the two topics and the requirements, percent coverage needed, consistency, and the purposes of each. Usually fish attractors are composed of a lose, open weave or spacious consistancy. Bob Lusk calls this fluffy cover. For REFUGE areas to be effective they need to be finely divided surfaces and comprise a significant part of the littoral or shallow areas (6”-3ft deep). I often suggest at least 25% of the shoreline. Predators often hunt the edges of this type of cover. Whereas in fluffy cover predators and large panfish locate within and among the cover. If you are managing your pond as primarily put-and-take and stocking larger sized fish with few forage fish present, then the refuge areas may be overall more of a detriment then benefit. But as I said earlier, If it makes you feel better, put in some structure.
Seining. In your case, with a deep steep sided, bowl shaped pond, seining the whole pond is not feasible, but the proper use of a seine in the beech or shallow littoral areas for assisting in population control and monitoring fish hatches is a valuable fish management tool. Fish traps can also be good tools for managing fish populations. Areas with bundles of structure will prevent seining of those locations.
Read the link provided in a post below by Ewest about: structure = fish growth. Note the study was in ponds 0.5-1 acre (all larger than 0.25) and the study used 9 (nine) trees per cluster, not a couple. Nine evergreen trees placed in shallow water starts approach the definition of REFUGE for small fish. The fish in the study were not fed pellets. Forage fish and natural foods were the food source. In a case such as this, a dense and fairly large cluster of structure can be beneficial. I think this is due to it being closer to a REFUGE than a fluffy FISH ATTRACTOR. REFUGE can be a fish attractor, but a fluffy fish attractor is rarely a REFUGE.
Also note from reading Dr.Dave's PBoss article about evergreen trees as structure, that Christmas trees when used as fish structure begin their placement as dense cover and after several years gradually become fluffy structure - due top leaf - stem deterioration.
Remember that structure or obstructions where ever placed will prevent any seining of that area for fish sampling purposes.
You ask - “How do I tell whitch are the slow growing fish? Is this done by fishing or????” Good question. My opinion, and simply put is this – U sample or collect your fish by whatever means. Compare the length and body weight of each fish to the standard weight for that species. (Search - standard weight on this forum.) There are a couple references to computer downloads that will provide the standard weight for various fish. I can help with this task if you have trouble. If the fish are 80% or more of the standard weight, then U assume they are getting ample amounts of food because they are fat, and thus they are growing at the best rate that their genetics allows.
I got rushed for time on this one and I may have forgotten something and I can clean it up later. I am interested in other experienced opinions about your topic. Good luck. Keep us informed how things are progressing. We are interested.
Postscript. If any resident members have read thus far and and are still with me, and since the topic of GG has re-emergged,,,, can someone start or rekindle the torch (in another topic or post) about Deb and what happened to the photos of the large GG she promised us last year? If no one has nerve to start this, I will reignite the torch soon.
