# Pond Stocking



## Bro. Williams (Jul 21, 2008)

We have an existing 8 year old pond originally stocked with crappie, bass, bluegill and catfish. 

Over the years all have disappeared or been harvested except the bass and the catfish and maybe a few crappie. 

This is my first year managing the pond and funds are limited as always. I have added 5 pounds of fathead minnows, as recommended by the fish truck guys, and about 40 bluegills (I need about 400, but money is an issue), to balance the food chain. 

What are your thoughts on stocking from the nearby lake? The fish truck guys, and most articles I find online are against it. Their arguments are disease, hybrids, and getting off balance. 

Any supporters of "bucket biology"?


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## phrogpharmer (Apr 25, 2005)

In most states it is illegal to transport or stock fish without a permit from the Dept. of Agriculture or Fish and Game.


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## Riverdale (Jan 20, 2008)

If you thought buying stock fish was expensive, wit til you get the ticket from the DNR for "bucket stocking".......


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Guys do it here all the time during the winter. They go out ice fishing on Lake St. Clair throw the fish in a bucket of water making sure they are all legal size and able to keep, then sort them at home keeping the biggest. the rest will get dumped in their pound. 

 Al


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## mmoetc (Oct 9, 2012)

No matter how you stock the pond you have to address the predator-prey imbalance or all you're doing with those minnows and small fish is feeding the bigger ones. I'd work first on catching as many of the bass and catfish as possible before restocking. I'd also look at what kind of habitat and cover the smaller fish have available in the pond. Fish cribs, sunken trees and brush, last years christmas tree or anything that will provide shelter and cover for the smaller fish will help bring things back into balance.


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

I managed the ponds at our gun club for some time. The ponds get out of balance. When you catch no sunfish or only very large sunfish you have an excess of large fish and need to catch them out. If you have only very small bass--8 or 9 inches or so, you have way too MANY bass and must thin them. 

Unless you have much cover for them the minnows will not last and reproduce--I've done it. If the pond is of such nature that you can seine it, harvest the large fish before you restock the sunfish. In most states you can trap sunfish for bait, and this is a good source for the pond. Same with minnows. In Ok we were told that crappie would overpopulate a pond. 

Small catfish are the favorite food for bass, so putting small cats in an old pond is generally not a good idea. 

Some very successful pond managers used bleach to depopulate a pond before restocking. The wildlife people use rotenone, which can be purchased in gallon jugs.
It can also be obtained as a garden dust, a pesticide. I've used derris root powder from the garden center. Fish rise to the top and can be collected and used if not left overnight.


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## oldasrocks (Oct 27, 2006)

Oh great, I put 100 small channel cat in the pond last yr and 30 small blue cats this week. They will probably eat all my small cats!

This is an older pond, here when we bought the place. It's overpopulated with small bluegills.


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

If it is overpopulated with small bluegills there are not enough bass in there. If there are not a lot of big bass your catfish will grow quickly and the blues will fatten on the small bluegills. Don't put any bass in there until your blues have had a year to grow. 

Get a bluegill trap (a cloverleaf or any other) and trap out as many small bluegill as you can. Chop them up and feed to your chickens or put them in your garden as fertilizer, one or two under each hill of corn and squash.


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## oldasrocks (Oct 27, 2006)

I built a big live trap for the bluegills. Its' 3 ft X 3 ft X 4 ft. I bait it and check it regular. Last yr I caught a 5 gallon bucket of small bluegills and it didn't make a dent in them. I'm feeding the small blues in hopes they grow fast.

When we moved in 15 yrs ago we were catching 8 to 12 inch bluegills. Now they are 2 to 4 inches- vastly overpopulated. 12 yrs ago we put in 50 largemouth bass but evidently they can't eat fast enough. Occasionally I catch a 2 inch bass so know there are some bigger ones in there somewhere.

I bought a leaf shredder. We drop the bluegills in and spray the remains out into the pond.


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## JJ Grandits (Nov 10, 2002)

The spring overflow of a pond owned by one of my landscape clients will occasionally get repopulated by whatever swims up stream. There were some really nice bass and northerns in there. A friend of his took out some big northerns that have not been replaced. The bluegill population has gone through the roof. There are still some huge bass but not enough to control them. Hopefully we picked up some more northerns this spring to get things under control.


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

If you cannot trap out enough bluegills to do the job, stock a hundred or so small bass.

The only problem with stocking small bass is that sometimes bass are cannibalistic.


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## mmoetc (Oct 9, 2012)

Or get 100 kids with cane poles.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

If it's legal there and your local waters are not infested with exotic species (including parasite or disease species) there isn't much danger to relocating local fish. All fish have parasites and bacteria and the fish you buy aren't any different. In fact culture pond fish may have a higher incidence of parasites because of the higher density of fish in the culture ponds.


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## Fishindude (May 19, 2015)

My pond is one acre, 13' deep and about 15 years old now. Originally stocked it with only hybrid bluegill and redear sunfish, probably 400 total. They reproduce as much as regular bluegill, so you have to re-stock as you harvest. On average I stock about 100 hybrid gills each year because we eat some and let friends keep some.

Original bass in this pond were bucket stocked. My dad caught seven bass from his lake and brought them over, have never stocked another bass and there are plenty.

The hybrid bluegills get huge, some 11" fish probably close to a pound.

I did get wiped out by otters several winters ago, but restocked and things are back in good shape.


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