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

Reference - 5444 pond is approximately 1/2 acre and located in western IL area. Pond will also be 12' deep.
Not having pellet trained YP nor SMB puts a significant decrease on fish numbers that will be grown in the pond. Plus normally their growth will be relatively slower and likely not as big. This all being due mainly to amount of available food. However one can grow decent sized fish in a 0.5ac pond it is just they will be fewer and average size will be smaller in comparison to fish in a pellet fed pond.
So for: *Spring 2020**
5# Fathead Minnow (per lb.)
150 Pumpkinseed, 1.5-3"
150 Redear Sunfish, 2-3"
150 Yellow Perch 3-5"

Since you already have a pond full of FHM I would move the 5# FHM to the fall stocking.

*Fall 2020**
30 Smallmouth Bass 4-6"
10 Walleye, 6-8"
FHM

I am glad to see that you dropped out the BG and HBG for initial stocking. They can easily be added years later with good success if desired.
Firstly I would have an alternate plan for not getting the PS and SMB. These two fish species are commonly not available at some fish farms depending on the historical consistency of the Fish Farm. Do your homework diligently, ask how many times in the last 10 years did they not have SMB. If it were me, I would be locating other farms that sell PS and SMB if you really want them for your initial stockings. SMB almost exclusively are only available as fingerlings in the fall as individuals from that spring's hatch. They sell out fast and supplies are limited due to low production by smallies. I have seen numerous times where Walleye are more available than SMB in the fall. This is because the Farms generally go to a dependable producer and buy the stocker walleye. SMB as a whole can have a bad spring and almost no one has them throughout the common retail market. I would do my best to locate a place that sells HSB as an alternate for SMB. I would be seriously looking at SMB from TJ as very high quality dependable pellet trained smallies. Your entire fishery will be a whole lot better if you can start with pellet raised smallies. I refer back to Snipe's earlier statement: ""I drove 7hrs to get my SMB and I'd drive 20 if that's what it takes. It's easy to say it's too hard.. Life's too short, get what you want.""

Yellow perch. I agree with esshup to at least get some 5"-7" YP for the initial stocking even if you have to settle for fewer initial YP numbers. Maybe 25-30 (5"-7") 60-80 (3"-5"); cost can be equal to 150 3"-5" YP. Also see later.

The other thing you could do is slightly decrease the numbers of PS-RES to increase the number of perch. If you get the mixed sizes of YP early enough, as in March, you will get YP eggs and a YP hatch this spring (2020) which happens in April. For a YP hatch this spring, you need mixed YP sizes to get a decent number of smaller males for fertilizing eggs of the larger 6"-8" females. Just one egg ribbon from a 7"-8" YP will give you lots of small YP for a 2020 year class. With your planned panfish forage supply, the YP are likely to be your main pond forage fish because RES-PS might not produce lot of small fish each year. Thus the YP will be the backbone of your SMB-WE fishery. Plus you might not even get PS and your RES survival may struggle during the Illinois winters.

If you do this to get a YP hatch in 2020 you could stock some 3"-5" HSB spring 2020. HSB are readily available in late spring early summer. Then add some fingerling, juvenile SMB in fall 2020. All will do fine because the small HSB will eat pellets all summer if you fed them AND reduce their predation influence while allowing good recruitment of FHM. Do not hesitate to drive 3-5 hours to get good quality fish and the species for your planned stocking. "I drove 7hrs to get my SMB-HSB and I'd drive 20 if that's what it takes." Small numbers of properly bagged oxygenated fish travel very well.