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

I think I've gotten the ponds into a semblance of order from the ruffianly treatment I went through in the tread - 2.5 Acre Pond Gone! work/restoration thread so with the water levels stabilized in two of the three ponds and Fishbowl, below the cabin doing quite well, to the point I'm going to stock critters again. Bill C has given me some great advice and I think I'm following it... except for not throwing pellets just yet.

As is discussed above: Outcome I want is a fishery that is balanced with two ponds being Ohio vanilla Bluegill, LMB and an occasional perch. The new ... well refurbished pond, Crescent pond the one off pond with Perch, SMB, RES, and a couple Walleye.

Pond #1 - Figure8

Linked to the water level in Crescent - went down for 18 months (2 winters) until I got the leak fixed. No fish kill ID'd but it was shallower and smaller - it has recovered and has great structure/submerged vegetation for habitat. Always been a great pond and balanced, prior to the troubles with Crescent Pond it rose and connected Forg Pond via a small channel. It's about 15" below that minimum level now... not sure that will ever connect again. Anyway... Took 4 18" LMB out to restock a buddies pond.


Pond #2 - Fishbowl

Nice and deep overall, to 22' at the old creek and dam. Lots of structure, bald cypress tress, I'm dropping a couple more trees into it this spring. pH is a little hot or some other issue that makes it absolutely fabulous to swim in as NO filamentous algae grows on the surface and only sparingly submerged vegetation so I add structure to this pond every year or so. Took two 18" LMG total of 6 to my buddies pond.






Pond #3 - Crescent aka Problem Child.... see the link above.

80% new turned bottom with LOTS of trees and structure, good shoreline growth of newly planted cypress and cattails to add roots to the bank. the older 'muck' end is deeper now and has in the first year expanded it's submerged weeds. It's banks are very steep and will only have 3-5' from shore before it'll be too deep for rooted aquatic plants to grow. It was 2.5 acre, put a berm at the proper area during restoration and it's now a 2 SA pond. During restoration it was completely drained and was sterile of fish. Restocking began in '22 once I got the pH up to 7, 11 pounds of FHM and 30 2-4" hand sorted (Thanks Bill C.) RES Aug '22. My alkalinity was really bad off but got that remediated fully in the fall of 2022. So I lost a year getting the chemistry right and now going to start along the well thought out plan above. GS spawning mats from the local carpet store are in hand for the stocking in a few weeks. On SMB I found two rivers within 30mins that sport a good population of SMB. Making kayak plan to float with the intention of transplanting up to 10 12"+ (min keeper in OH) SMB to this pond over the year.

Current thinking on the stocking plan for the three ponds.