Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction New Pond NE Ohio

Welcome to the forum! It looks beautiful.

Now before it fills, try to add a LOT more cover for the fish. Brush piles, trees that are somewhat supported off of the bottom of the pond, etc. You really want about 1/4 of the surface area of the pond in cover for the fish. If the fish are swimming a bathtub, two things will happen. 1) The LMB will be like marathon runners, constantly swimming to find food, and burning up a LOT of calories and 2) the small fish will have nowhere to hide and they will get absolutely hammered by the predators. You need the small fish to survive to grow to teenagers to be food for the bass, then after a few years to adulthood to keep reproducing in the pond.

I wouldn't add alfalfa, I would only add lime if your water test showed <40 for alkalinity and the pH was over 8 in the morning. I doubt that you will need lime but only a water test will tell for sure. You can get a cheap bottle of swimming pool or aquarium water test strips to do a "quick and dirty" test.

As for fish, here's what I recommend for growing big bass. Now this plan will require you to harvest bass from the pond after they spawn at the rate of 20# per surface acre per year, and you will want to target the offspring, not the stocked fish. You HAVE TO remove that amount of bass starting year 3 or they will stunt. Since you will not be stocking a lot of bass, I would recommend fin clipping each stocked bass so you know which ones they are when they are caught down the road. I recommend removing one of the ventricle or pelvic fish with a pair of kitchen shears when they are stocked. Remove the same fin on all the bass, that way you know what "group" of bass they are, in case you do some supplemental stocking at a later date. You can re-trim the fin at a later date if you see it growing back.

Stock Fatheads and golden shiners now, asap. In May, stock 3,000 Bluegill per surface acre and 200-300 Redear Sunfish per surface acre. In Sept stock 50 Largemouth per acre, or wait until the Spring of 2023 to stock the bass. I bet that the bass will spawn the following year after stocking if they are stocked in the Spring, or the Spring of the 2nd year if stocked in the Fall. Your bass will grow faster if you can stock feed trained bass. I know you are on the opposite side of the state, but Shelby Fish Farm in Anna, OH sells feed trained Largemouth Bass. (I delivered 30,000 to him in January).

You don't "have to" stock any other fish. You could stock crayfish if you wanted to, but I'd wait until you have underwater plants established in the pond.

I would purchase a Texas Hunter feeder and get 2 bags of Optimal Bluegill Jr. Food to start. Start feeding the Bluegills 2-4 days after stocking, initially only throw feed for a second 2x day starting around an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset. Throw the feed over water that is 3-5 feet deep or over a 2'-3' water depth and let the prevailing winds carry it over deeper water. Only feed as much as they can consume in 15 minutes, no more. You can order Optimal Feed directly from them on the internet and they will ship directly to you. Typically they will get it to you in a week give or take.

Year 2, switch to Optimal Bluegill and Optimal Bass food at a 50/50 mix. Again, let the fish and your pocketbook determine how much they want to eat. I feed the fish 2x day in my personal pond, and have the Texas Hunter Feeder set at 12-15 seconds per feed event. But I will adjust that depending on how well or poorly they are feeding.

By following that plan you can have bluegill that are pushing 10" and a pound within 3 years and bass that are a pound the Fall after stocking them, and maybe bigger. I've had LMB (feed trained) grow to be 18.5" and 6# in my pond.