# New pond owners



## mike10063 (5 mo ago)

We recently purchased property with a 1 acre pond. We were told the previous owner stocked it this year but we are not sure with what. We've seen lots of little bass, 3 bigger bass (8- 12") and an abundance of catfish. There are supposedly crappies in the pond but we have yet to see them. Can too many catfish choke out the bass? Is it ok to feed in the middle of the summer? If so what should we feed? There also 4 white amurs. Thanks!


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## Ol' Whiskers (Aug 11, 2004)

crappies are very prolific, and feed on any fry, especially bass and bluegill. The CC eat anything that sinks or swims, all the time. It's likely you actually have a slew of miniature crappies, a few bluegill, and a few smallish bass. If you want bass and bluegill, you have to get rid of the crappie and the cats completely, now. Then, introduce fifty pounds of fathead minnows before fall, and fifty or so large breeding size straight run bluegill before fall. The bass forage the minnows, and next Spring introduce about three hundred 2-inch bluegill, which will become bass food next summer. Feed the bluegill and small bass now, until water temp drops below 60 degrees, with high protein floating fish pellet's. If you leave the cats they will just consume all of the pellet food as well as the little bluegill. Next year, add some really large bluegill and ten or so large bass. It takes ten pounds of food fish to add one pound of weight on a LMB. Balance is everything.


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## mike10063 (5 mo ago)

First off thanks for your reply/advice. What are CC's? Do you have a place you recommend where we could buy pond stocking fish?


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## Ol' Whiskers (Aug 11, 2004)

channel catfish

Look at website for Jones Fish Hatchery in Newtown outside Cincy, they have other locations as well.


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Its fairly common to have ponds with bass, bluegills, crappies, and channel catfish all together with no issues. Don’t let any single species get too over populated and it’ll be fine.


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## Muddy (May 7, 2017)

Every pond has a carrying capacity of pounds of fish based on water volume, depth, temperature, dissolved oxygen, fertility, forage, etc. Channel cats and crappie are in direct competition with large mouth bass. If you want good bass fishing then you need to eliminate some of the competition. You can increase the carrying capacity with quality high protein feed. I use Aquamax products from Purina. Don't overfeed, make sure that all of the feed get's eaten. I feed from spring through fall. I used to feed every day. This year I've fed every other day due to lack of time. I've bought fish from both Jones and from ATAC in the past. I gave up on stocking FHM because they never survive long enough to breed and I can feed supplemental food for much less than the cost of FHM. I chose not to stock crappies at all because I can catch them in any local reservoir. I chose to limit the CC numbers because I can also catch them in any local reservoir. I stocked CC in one of my pond's for the kids to enjoy, but not the other. One pond is bass, bluegill, and CC(No supplement feeding). The other pond is bass, hybrid striper, bluegill, redears, and perch(I supplement feed this pond). I keep the CC numbers low. The bass grow very well in both ponds. Good luck with your new pond and enjoy!


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## Southernsaug (May 23, 2019)

good advice muddy and others


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