Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose 2.25 SA pond - build a fishery

Stressless -- my statement of NY using GSF was an old person typing error. GSF should read GSH as in golden shiner which to many here will make much more sense to use with SMB,YP, WE. I will go back to my original post and fix my typing error mistake.

As for your questions; Q1) Is the Depth 11-12' sufficient for WE? I think 11-12 depth is enough for walleye. They actually tolerate warm water better that big old YP. Your main problem will be dependably locating WE for supplement stocking. If you want various sizes in the fishery then you will need to periodically stock more WE especially true if you are occasionally harvesting WE. Small 10"-14" WE will help thin numbers of mostly YP and somewhat the SMB. Fenders only occasionally have WE and later supplemental stockers should be 8"-11" for best chance of survival. Initial stockers can be 5"-7" and using this size for restock is a gamble and risky for their survival. 15-20/ac WE would be a good starter number. Fewer or more can be stocked later depending on their success and your need for predation/

I would start with 40-50 SMB per ac or fewer /ac so they have plenty of food, grow fast and do not eat too many of the breeder minnows/GSH. Watch SMB first and subsequent spawn success as they could damage or eliminate the FHM brooder fish base. SMB can occasionally although they rarely overpopulate similar to LMB. Remember each smallie will eat around 10 lbs of minnow type foods to grow to 12" about 1 lb. 50 SMB are eating 500 lbs of mostly minnows as food in about the first 12-16 months. See now why you need lots & lots of minnows before the predators are stocked???

Q2 - Part 1 - a vertebrate barren 2.25 acre 11' deep pond with lots of cover and structure,,,, what stocking rate and which species should I stock in order? A complex answer applies to this question. Since you are not feeding pellets stocking density will be lower numbers per acre assuming you want good growth rates. Lots of foods, usually diverse foods, are needed for good fish growth. Lusk says "Every Day A Fish Does Not Eat Is A Day It Does Not Grow". Fish need lots of food for best growth and when it is not there growth slows down accordingly. Your job as manager will be to always keep visible small forage fish present which indicates predators are not overeating the forage base. FHM, GSH and YP could provide adequate foods with the proper habitat for well managed SMB numbers and a few put and take WE. The general rule is that natural productivity clearish water ponds raise about 3 to 4 times fewer total fish pounds per acre compared to pellet fed fish ponds.
Part 2, The best plan or method to start the fishery is with abundant forage and allow GSH time to develop large adult sizes before the predators are added. The 2nd summer with adult minnows as forage will produce lots of minnows for the incoming fall added predators. Fenders usually has fingerling SMB in the fall but very, very rarely in spring due to being sold out. So if you miss the fall stocking of SMB then you will probably have to wait until 2nd fall stocking which is when I would add the WE and not the first fall. Unless you reduce the initial number of SMB and equally substitute several WE per acre the first fall.

Q3) Should I add any other forage species since I do not plan to toss pellets. Diversifying the forage is a VERY good idea. If you allow one summer for minnow/GSH to reproduce then the pond will develop a huge invertebrate community to help feed fingerling stocker fish when stocked later. Fender will disagree with this, but think about it. Fish farms want to sell fish so they heavily push full initial stockings. Allowing one full spring-summer season for minnows to reproduce will astonish you as to how many small fishes will present by October. You could initially also stock RES, and crayfish; both in the spring. RES will help reduce the chance of fish parasites transmitted from the snail as vector. I've seen Fender's RES and papershell crayfish and those sold that I've seen are sometimes not pure species. I even saw at least one instance where their LMB contaminated SMB purchased only as smallies.

Most fish farms buy most all their fish for sale, not Fender. I have known them and bought lots of fish from them since 1988. Fender 'self' farms a lot of water (200+ac) and the self farmed fish crop for sale can get the occasional mistakenly added fish mixed in with the batch one buys. This is why I like to buy larger individuals and fewer individuals so I can always sort out the 'mistake' fish. The smaller the stockers are the more likely the mistake fish will be introduced into what you buy because it is pretty difficult even for farm helpers and even the experts to recognize a 2" RES from HBG, BG or other type of hybrid sunfish. Fish farms get numerous types of hybrid sunfish when they raise them their self. Buyer beware. This is not usually a problem when LMB are used as bigmouth predator, but without LMB the chances of the mistake fishes growing and reproducing becomes significantly more likely. I've seen green sunfish offspring ruin minnow and YP based fisheries. A few LMB will eventually ruin a smallmouth fishery. RES purchases of small individuals can have the occasional BG and or HBG mixed in the RES.

I best prefer stocking only papershell crayfish that always stay in the pond and do not climb out and make mud chimneys as do other common crayfish species. Papershell crays stay a little smaller than other species, are a little less aggressive, and perform VERY well as forage for perch, smallies and WE. Abundant rocky habitat allows them to thrive. Fender papershell crayfish years ago had rusty crayfish in the mix. I had to and always hand sorted them. Rusty's are considered aggressive and can crowd out papershell over time. There might even be red swamp crays or northern crays at many fish farms now. Steve F is pretty opinionated about fish stocking and be prepared to deal with this. Remember Steve and ALL Fish Farms are in the business to sell fish and not necessarily being real concerned and willing to closely follow your long term goals for the pond fishery. I am selling you nothing. I have even stocked special minnows, mayfly larvae and other aquatic invertebrates into ponds to enhance the forage base.

Minnow / GSH If you have good ample spawning structure for FHM, stock in late Apr or early May 8-10 lbs FHM per ac and 4-5 lbs GSH per acre. GSH really need shallow shoreline algae, weedy areas, or shag rug type material along the shoreline for egg laying. The other option is to buy a box GSH fry from Arkansas. Although if you provide spawning structure for some mature GSH of several pounds,,, they will produce thousands of fry the first year providing you stock them as mature and prespawn. Sometimes you can order adult GSH from local bait shops that would get them shipped in with their FHM. RES 4"-6" can be added with FHM and if some are 5"-6",, RES should spawn in early - mid June. 40 to 50 RES per ac prespawn would give you a very good big 1st year crop of RES.

Be aware you IMO you will need to maintain a dedicated slot size harvest of fish since you will not feed pellets. You should annually monitor the spawn survival success, (aka recruitment) so one specie does not overpopulate. This would most likely eventually be the YP or SMB. Good survival of SMB or YP fingerlings could over eat the minnow forage base and slow the growth of the WE. due to lack of food. RES will very rarely overpopulate with SMB and WE present.