Pros & Cons of stocking new pond with old fish

[bellmontwrestling]

Hey guys!  I am having my pond dug next week.  Gonna be 3/4 acres and $14000 with sand and stone.  SOOO I don't know if I can afford to buy fish to stock the thing!  Anyways, a friend of mine who has allowed me to fish his 1 acre pond for the last 10 years told me the other day that he wants me to take a bunch of fish out of his pond this year because he thinks it is overstocked.  We are talking 3+lbs large mouths, all the gills you can imagine, and some 7-8lbs Channel Cats.  I have heard bad things about puting fish from a different pond in a new one.  But, I know this is a clean place.  Anyone have any good advice?  Thanks for your help in advance.

[crappie66]

I have never heard anything bad about stocking fish from one pond to another.  The only concern would be disease, but you said it was clean, so why not do it.  When they stock lakes those fish come from a foreign body of water and they do alright.

I do recall reading somewhere recently that you should wait a while before stocking a pond after it is dug and filled with water.   Something to do with allowing plankton and weed growth to start, or you will have a body of water with no oxygen to support the fish.

[thedude]

stocking it w/ so many prederator fish (bass, cats) especially larger fish will require a good forage base. bluegills will survive on insects etc, but bass and cats need minnows. I fish a pond that is well managed and about 1.2 acres. i believe a few years back, the owner stocked about 500lbs of fat head minnows just to keep up w/ the fish. (only bass). Consult the DNR, they have programs for pond management and will give you FREE advice.

to further drive that point home, i fish another pond that has some very nice fish in it. it too is about 1 acre. Its never been stocked or managed. There isn't a very good forage base for the bass so their primary forage are crappies. You will catch a 15" bass w/ a 4-6" crappie in its throat. i have also caught crappie and had bass come and hit them while bringing them in. Basically what you get here is small skinny bass ( no medium sized forage) or fat sow 3-4lbers. PLUS i dont like the fact that my bass are eating all my crappies !! I caught a 17" crappie there a few years ago, would've had him mounted, but it was paper thin. If i had the money now i would dump a butt-load of minnows in there and let things even out.

[river scum]

i stocked my parents pond(3/4 acres) 10 years ago. i started the first year with gills n crappie. the next fall i stocked bass,about 2 doz 2-6#s. the forth year i noticed the bass were not doing the job,so cats went in. 2 doz 1-3#s. i now get 18in. crappie- 8# bass- nice gills(few meals a year)-channels 1-20#s. i also remove plenty of gills for flathead fishing threw the summer. you will have a great time being the steward of your pond. take the small fish out when you catchum. the big fish will just get bigger.
my 2 cent for ya good luck wrestler

[Mr.Vertical]

Hey Bellmont,whats up man?When i take fish to a buddys pond we put e'm in a holding cage for 24 hours just in case they go into shock and die,and if theyre gonna die they'll do it in the first 24 hours then u dont gotta go dippin dead fish out of youre new pond,just the way us Wissel fans do it(lol)good luck on youre new pond it sounds like u r makindg a dandy