What type of fish to stock?
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The pond is about 10 feet deep at the deepest and it is at approximately 6500 feet elevation. approx 5-7 acres. there is a small creek that feeds it. it is usually cool all year long. what types of fish do you suggest?
Choices:
LArgemouth bass
smallmouth bass
Yellow Perch
Bluegill (and various sunfish)
channel catfish
crappie
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I would try bluegill, and or crappie, or maybe even some rainbow trout.
Hey man I live at 6000 feet and if I had the pond you describe I would stock largemouth, bluegill, and channel cats. Throw in the perch and crappie as well if you want, there’s lots of small ponds around here with that exact biology. The fish will likely reproduce nicely so additional stockings would not be necessary. Just do some research on the numbers of each species so you have a nice balance and you don’t end up with a lot of fish with stunted growth. Good luck!
A pond will always do great with Largemouth Bass, Channels Catfish, Bluegill, and maybe Crappie. You want to be sure to put plenty of Bluegill/sunfish in the pond for your bigger fish to feed on. Normally 5 Bluegill for 1 bass is a good ratio to go by when stocking. My grandparents have a pond which is right at 5 acres. When we first stocked it we put approximately 5,000 Bluegill, 1,000 Bass, and 200 Catfish. We stocked this pond only one time which was about 10 years ago and the pond is still just as good to fish as it ever was. You will want to occasionally harvest the pond. Generally theres not much need to keep any of the Bass or Catfish but Bluegills will over run and ruin a pond pretty quickly. We used to keep a bunch of Bluegills from my pond once a year and have a fish fry but I also use a lot for bait when fishing for Catfish.
Native bluegill and or shell cracker first(8months) to let them grow big enough to reproduce and defend.Catfish and bass next of equal size(fingerling).If you put large bass in they will eat all the small catfish guaranteed. Crappie will do well but tend to over reproduce which depletes the food balance for your sunfish population and consequently stunts the growth.Make sure to take a sample of the water to your county agent and have it tested to see what it needs in the way of fertilizer and lime.This is a free service where I live and they can help you on the quantity and species best suited to your particular setup.Fertile water is essential to start the food chain to support a healthy population in your pond.Hope this helps you.
Your state’s local Fish & Wildlife people will normally stock your pond for little to no cost as long as their not any fish in it already. They stock them with largemouth bass, bluegill, and channel catfish. Pretty much the three main species of freshwater fish.
I think largemouth bass, bluegill, channel catfish, and crappie will do fine but not sure about the perch and the smallie’s wouldn’t be a good choice.
If you stock with trout you might want to go with Tigers or browns they can tolerate warmer water and are resistant to whirling disease
You could stock all of those species in there if you wanted. but be careful, the biggest mistake people do in stocking their own pond is over stocking. if you put to many bass r catfish in there, the will not grow very big, and will most likely run out of food. for every bass you put in there, you should in some bluegill, perch, and crappie.
All good suggestions already, but just wanted to chime in because you’ve got me hyped up. I’ve been wanting to build my own private pond for a while now. And I’ve seen the process of a few being made, with ones that have been successful and others that just didn’t cut it. As a matter of fact, a couple years ago I seen two ponds, side by side on separate properties, one flourished while the other was only left with frogs and tadpoles.
Anyway, I would stock some Bluegill and Crappie. But, as unmamfqlm and fireman have already mentioned, they will tend to overpopulate if you’re not careful. So, other than harvesting, a predatory fish such as the Largemouth Bass should be stocked. Not only will they feed on the panfish, they are awesome to fish for. Catfish, yes, they aren’t picky eaters. And, as Backwater already mentioned also, I’m not too sure about the perch and smallies, unless you are really set on them of course. Eventually, consider adding just a few Grass Carp to help manage any overgrowth of algae. You would probably want the algae at first because that will help attract bugs and insects, which attracts the sunfish, which attracts the bass. Besides, green fertile water helps the growth for bigger bluegill and crappie.
As I said before, catfish.
I am glad to see that you gave up on the Rainbow trout idea.
Bass would be ok too, but not many. With the largemouth, if you were to plant anything like perch, sunfish, crappie… they would be gone before you know it.
Bass and catfish is the way to go.
You need to know what your fish will be feeding off. You need to check if there is any type of food for the fish you are planning on stocking. If your resources are limmited with respect to sustainability. I would stock two types of fish Sunfish and crappie reproduce at a fairly good rate and can serve as food for catfish and bass but populations need to be balanced because the fish that will serve you as food can eat the eggs of the bigger fish if their population is too high.
Largemouth bass, channel cat, and bluegill
bluegill grow faster then catfish or bass and they will feed the them
bluegill are also very easy to catch but catfish and bass will give you more of a thrill