Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait FHM, GSH Lifecycle Confusion

I measured some this morning and the longest were 1 1/8" and I'd say the average that I dipped out were probably 3/4". Some that may have been YOY were bigger but I can't be sure if these were original stocking or not.

The overstocking was intentional. We've got a lot of predator pressure around here and I didn't want to get a half a** start to the thing and waste a whole season as I'm an old man and in a big hurry. I read an article in PB stating that GSH were predators, limited by mouth size. So my intention was that if the FHM over populated, so much the better for the GSH, which I prefer anyway. I accept the fact that my methods will likely produce a boom and bust cycle but that's OK with me. Most of the pond is 2-3' deep, with a small 5' hole, so it remains to be seen if I'm going to routinely get winter kills or not anyway. The original fall stocking survived is all I know right now.

The baitpond is connected to the main pond by screened pipes so there should be a decent exchange of plankton between them. I have not fertilized. In any case, fertilizing would have a somewhat limited effect as it's just as likely to wash back in to the main pond as not. I do feed a bit of some floating catfish chow most days.

Thanks for the info. I'll keep an eye on growth rates as we go through October and see what happens.