Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking a new pond with RES, YP and SMB

Your numbers are reasonable. If some of the stocker YP are breeder sized 5" up to & including some 8"ers and stocked before Apr 5-8 you should get a few strands of perch eggs. Some of the stocker YP can be 3"-5". One successful YP egg strand will produce more than enough young YP. Adding SMB in fall is a good idea. If you wisely harvest the SMB based on recruitment you should be able to maintain adequate numbers of YP for a good annual harvest. SMB can when reproducing over-eat the food source (forage fish). Which results in too few YP for harvest.

If after several years you notice small black spots or grubs in/on the fish then you can stock some redear sunfish to help reduce snails which are a link to the fish parasites. Or you can stock 30-40 RES in spring or fall with the SMB.