Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain gizzard shad

Love this conversation!

Our pond management company has quite a few trophy bass lakes under management. I want gizzard shad in those lakes, as long as at least 25% of the bass biomass exceeds 18". That's become my rule of thumb over decades of growing big bass. Big bass eat big meals...remember that.

For a small body of water, say less than 5 acres, trying to manage for trophy bass is tougher, and gizzard shad stand a greater chance to overpopulate. With that risk, you have to decide whether you want to deal with that issue or not. For a three acre pond, you could wind up with 400-500 pounds of adult gizzard shad that don't fit the food chain. If you can harvest them at large sizes, consider it. If not, don't use them. Threadfin shad could be much better, along with what's been suggested above.