OT — Restocking a pond.

...and when I say pond, I mean a Texas tank.


I have a small pond behind the house that I cleaned out this past summer after it went dry. Not big, probably 35 yards across at the widest point but I'm thinking I've got it to about 12 feet deep in the deepest part now.

Anyway, I want to get a jump on restocking it but I can't afford to put to much into it yet. With all the other improvements I have to do first I just was hoping to get a start on it and maybe have a place for the kids to catch a pan fish in the late summer.


I'd love to have a few crappie in it too.

Anyway, if a fella was wanting a good little crappie pond someday, what would you suggest to buy here if you were only going to spend maybe a couple hundred dollars.

I was thinking 100 black crappie, 100 copper nose bluegill and a few pounds of fathead minnows.

I think I'll introduce some bass later on as we catch some from the big lake. Any opinions are welcome, I have no idea of what I'm doing here. lol.

Our farm pond de-oxygenated with the wet spring we had. I looked into the legal sizes of the fish I wanted and spent a few days fishing. We caught 200 small perch (no legal size or bag limits), 150 blue gill (no size or bag limits), 6 Walleye (longer than state requirement) and 20 bass (longer than 12 inches, legal size of 8). This is to 'jump start' the pond again. I made several trips from the lake to the pond to keep the fish alive using a styrofoam cooler to transport. They suggested transplanting fish from a local lake or pond instead of buying fish to stock. As long as you can do it legally for a privately owned pond, I would go that route. Plus is time you get to spend fishing.

I should add that the state marine biologist provided the reason our pond had a fish kill. He then provided the info for a DNR fella who suggested local fish to be transplanted. He informed me there was a form of a fish virus in one local lake and requested I not take any bass from it. Bringing in fish transplanted from a local lake or pond is the better way as he told me. Our lake where I fished was only about 1.5 miles from our pond. I used the public access site and got quite a few larger fish. A few even made it to the stove.

I don't know what a copper nose bluegill is ? but the hybrid ones I think also called bream ? are nice fish and get big !

According to all the folks ive talked to here, every one says not to put crappie in a small pond.They reproduce so fast that they simply over populate in no time and dont ever grow.According to them if you do add crappie be prepared to harvest it really heavy to keep them in check.And dont throw any back. From what ive seen at the small lakes around that i fish,that very well may be the case. Seems like they do well the first year or two then they just dont get any bigger.At the smaller state lakes around here state has been putting in saugeyes to control the crappies and get them in check.I even talked to the state head of fisheries,and asked him why bluegill didnt do the same.According to him ,they will if not fished hard but it takes a lot longer. the reason is because crappie eat all the young of other species from day one where the bluegill must get up fairly large before they switch soley to minnows and things as a diet,sort of like trout.Ive seen ponds with good size crappie ,and in fact sister owns one thats pretty good,but nearly everyone fishes for crappie in them also which may help keep them in check. I'm not saying dont ,but be prepared to keep alot of small fish.Ive transplanted a lot of catfish,and quite a few bass by simply taking a plastic barrel and adding a 12volt bilge pump hooked to a piece of 3/4 pvc drilled with several holes across the top for an areator.as long as you can keep the water cool they stay pretty good. i have kept several dozen minnows up to two weeks at the lake in cool weather with nothing else.
there are charts out there that show how many pounds of each type fish to harvest per acre each year to keep it in balance.

I dug a new pond and wanted to stock it. I only put fat head minnows in it the first year. Sounds like your pond and mine are about the same size. I put maybe a dozen minnows in it when it only had about a foot of water in it. I had a friend who is an avid fisherman and his advice to me was "to put the food source in first". Then after a year, introduce other species into the pond.....where there is a food source. I followed his advice. After the first year, the number of minnows was unbelievable! Literally thousands! I never did introduce any other fish into the pond, as all the neighbors now come to my pond for their bait. We trap them literally by the bucket full in the summer.

theres a guy named Kenneth Henneke [sp?] in Halletsville,Tx. that has a fish hatchery...he has sold alot of fish to the lake in the subdivision next to my ranch...he could answer your questions...i know for a fact a few pounds of fat heads are gonna be a short snack.

You need some larger catfish or bass to keep the white perch and bream in check, round roll of milo or oat hay will feed a fair size pond for a year.

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission made recomendations on what to do with my pond. They furnished literature, a stocking recommendation and stocked it for me at a very reasonable price. That was 3-4 years ago, now we got fish and am very happy with the state's work. That is the first place to check.

I don't know about where you are but here in Missouri if the pond meets a set standard the conservation dept will stock your ponds for free. They do have one thing you have to do but that is it. You have to fish it at times. I still own it and can say who does or does not fish it you just have to make sure it is fished

I have a small pond, about 1.2 acres. A guy that I went to school with runs a stocking service, he wouldn't sell me crappie. His opinion is you need at least 4-5 acres to raise crappies in. You can read about stocking fish at pondboss.com. They have a good forum.

I'm in the same situation. Our 1/2 acre tank in Grimes County went dry, so we had it cleaned out and now need to think about re-stocking. With the recent rains it is now overflowing.
We attended a pond management seminar on Saturday, and the speaker said that bass need water clarity to be able to hunt for food. If you put your arm in the water up to your elbow and can't see your fingers, then it's not suitable for bass. But for catfish, the muddier the better. Our water clarity is not going to be suitable for bass for quite some time, until we get good grass cover on the banks so the silt will quit washing in.
A friend has suggested Dunn's fish farm, they deliver here in Texas. They have a good website.

Okay, I realize now that crappie in a small pond is not a good idea.

You guys are giving me some good info.

I got onto the Texas Parks and Wildlife website and now have plenty of reading material.

I think I'm probably going to just go with a blue gills and fatheads for now.

It's also become clear that I need some lessons on pond management. I maybe dragging some of the timber I'm clearing off the dam into the pond instead of burning it to provide cover for the blue gill.

I would pass on any of those grass carp etc. They
pest which have infested the Mississippi and are
threatening the Great Lakes.

Definitely no crappie. Some one put some in my small pond and they totally ruined it. We drained it and killed all the fish and started over. Put in bream and catfish and very few bass. The sterile grass carp have worked very well for me at keeping weeds and algae in check.
Richard

I took some old bent rusty fence posts and staked old logs,ceder trees etc down in mine. sure made a difference.i drove them in the ground as far as possible tied logs etc to them with copper wire and then bent them over so they wouldnt be such a hazard on boat bottom. A freind of mine who worked in a plumbing supply house put out the word he wanted old toilets to the plumbers who came in,then he just built sort of a reef type deal with them.he simply laid them down on their sides about three wide and two or three deep.Sure made some good cover because of all the holes and things and theres not much for a hook to hang on if youve got kids fishing.Makes it nice for him because he had a stroke and its hard for him to retie if he looses a hook. Another guy swears by old pallets, he simply drives a post, and hangs pallets to it every which way,theres a couple i know of he put out that have been there 20 years or more.still another one prefers old drums that he stakes out.Whatever you choose its important to stake it down so it wont move around in my opinion.Dont forget your duck hunting spot!!grandkids and puddle ducks are a natural.And just between you and me,its kind of sacraledge to mention it here,but old farm equipment makes some really good fish cover! I dont do it ,but i have a neighbor who when he builds a fence down to water takes a old plow,cultivator etc thats worn totally out and uses his sky lift to drop it out in ponds after tying his wire to it.ive caught i really couldnt say how many fish around them.

I am over in Centerville. We have a truck that comes around once a month. Selling fish to restock ponds. I think he covers most of the counties around here. Leon county.

Look into an accelerated stocking program... many hatcheries offer this - you buy a certain percentage or type of fish larger than you normally would. It also helps to put them on an aggressive feeding plan. In doing this I was able to fish the pond a couple years earlier than normal. Makes a big difference to the kids.
Not sure of your kids" ages, but they grow up fast and a couple years may make a difference...

Good Luck

Tony

Dave, There's one thing you can do now with the pond. Add a bale or two of barley hay on the upper end or where ever the most water comes in. There's something in barley that helps with algae growth and adds nutrients to the food chain.

If the pond went dry last year what makes you think
it will have enough water to support fish this year?

(quoted from post at 21:25:10 02/21/12) If the pond went dry last year what makes you think
it will have enough water to support fish this year?

Click to expand...

From my understanding it hasn't gone dry in it's 15 years of existence. We went through a heck of a drought last year but I can't guarantee it won't again. Fingers crossed.

I spent a many an hours on my 641 dragging a box blade full of dirt out of it this past summer. I'd dare to say I've increased the water capacity by almost a 25% more. Couple that with spreading clay around the banks in the hopes of helping it hold more water, clearing the over grown timber on the banks to reduce vegetative evaporation and soon I'll be in the position to increase my water shed catch.

As of right now, it's full. We've been getting allot of rain.

Start with bluegill in the fall and catfish and maybe bass in the spring. That is what the IA DNR recommends for new pond stocking and it is working good for mine. I have about a 1.75 acre pond. Iowa DNR will provide the fish to stock very inexpensively if the pond is new or re-done and there is no direct livestock access to it. You might check that in your state.