Hello all, just built a new pond last nov. it's one and one fourth acre, 22 ft deep with a 10 ft wide, 5 ft deep channel down the middle that makes it 27 ft deep in the channel. I filled the pond from a creek on the back side of my property, filled with a 2 inch trash pump. I stocked the pond with 11 pounds of fathead minnows last dec then added 20 more pounds in February. In April I stocked 10 lbs of golden shiners, 215 yellow perch, and 100 red ear sunfish. I also added 5 dozen creek chubs, 6 dozen craw dads, from the creek below the pond, same one I filled the pond with. A friend has been catching shiners and minnows ( he calls them blood shiners and ozark minnows) from the Nianga river in southern mo. About 10 dozen of these.
I now have thousands of minnows in the pond. I have been feeding them Optimal Jr and a special lab mix that Dustin from Optimal said would really turbo charge these fish (90 dollars a bag) and man it really turbo charged em ! The perch were 2-3 inches when stocked, now they are 8-9 inches. Shiners were 2 inches and are now 4-5 inches and about 2 inches from back to belly. Don't know how big the red ears are because I haven't seen or caught any. The fat heads are huge and spawning like crazy. I am assuming that the perch are putting the hammer on the fat heads because i see a slight decline in their numbers, and when I feed them something comes up and slams em.
I want to add hybrid striped bass (25) and walleye (25) I was wondering if I should wait until the perch spawn before adding?
I am in no hurry cause me and the wife really get a kick out of watching the minnows feed every evening, 4 cups of junior, 2 cups of the lab mix, one cup of sportsmen choice, all eaten in about 15 minutes.
I waited on adding the perch and red ears until the minnows spawned and the I hoped that by the time they were big enough to eat the minnows, the minnow spawn would keep ahead of them, seems to be working.
Question is, when to add the stripers and walleye.
Thanks
Gregg