Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Hello from the Hoosier State

More questions...
What type of bluegill? Northern? Hybrid? What type of sunfish?
IF LMB are the chief predator of your fishery you will thank yourself later if you put in about half of the 'recommended' number. Almost every pond owner in a 'typically stocked' pond ends up with too many LMB and stunted LMB. They are prolific spawners and often pondowners find it require lots of time catching and removing to keep enough forage food in the pond to feed all the bass.

I don't have experience with this balance of bluegill,sunfish, and LMB so I can't speak personally but since almost every northern pond ends up being a bluegill/lmb pond almost everyone struggles with this balance.

If your goal is to catch lots of panfish and LMB and to have kids have fun then this should be an OK start but I would advise posting numbers of stockers and asking for advice from others. If you aren't fussy about LMB size or numbers or panfish size or numbers then it should be a neat experience.

Consider adding tilapia as a bonus forage fish at some point. You probably don't have a huge algae problem in a new pond but they are fun to watch, they clean up the algae and can be netted or caught in the fall for great filets. They also feed the bass (if you stock mature size adults that can pull off a spawn in the shorter growing season of Indiana) which takes pressure off your forage base.

Having suitable spawning structure and places for your bluegill/sunfish will also help get more young fish to serve as food for your hungry bass in years to come.

Don't forget YP and pellet trained if you can source them. That sets up a lot of joy handfeeding or machine feeding your YP, provides fun and tasty fish to catch, and the YP end up training the panfish to come for pellets. They are a blast to catch in all seasons, but through the ice is really a treat.