Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Finally pulled the trigger!

Good stuff here from several EXPERTS that eat, breathe and sleep these issues daily. Follow their advice!

I speak from experience, SMB will not manage BG populations even in a BOW virtually devoid of cover/structure. Even with dense apex predator populations of WE, HSB, HBCP, YP and SMB I still must employ management techniques to harvest BG populations through seining, angling, cast netting, trapping, you get the picture - it's a PITA year after year after year. Problem is a 5-6" BG is virtually bullet proof in a cool water, limited gape fishery - that's where the stunting occurs and per Kenny above the primary concern here is that the BG are adding significant [and worthless] biomass and pressure on the fishery. Yes you can collect and repurpose BG to feed your fish, but this is labor intensive and robs one of the precious time meant to spent ENJOYING the pond, not intensively managing it every day.

Choose a different lepomis species as companion to the SMB fishery - RES are absolutely safe - per Scott, PS can stunt although they are less fecund than BG, so you could also go that route. HBG are an option but F2+ generations will revert to less desirable GSF genetics per Cody. Agree with everyone else, leave out the CC and LMB - give your SMB fishery a good run for 4-5 years first. I like Scott's stocking for his client....if you can avoid GSH try to go with a different shiner species like Spotfin or Reds and Bluntnose minnows. GSH do compete with YP and YP lose - at least in the several fisheries I manage. I still see nice YP in the fisheries [14"+], but frequency of angling dropped off severely since GSH were stocked. GSH aren't going to RUIN your YP fishery, just relating there are more desirable species to try and source.