Pond-next steps

[bluedog225]

We must have received more rain that the nearest weather station reflects. I’m close to full. Hasn’t challenged the spillway yet.

Next steps, get some mosquito control fish in there. And maybe some crawfish. And some plants.

It’s pretty small. What would you stock this with? More for a healthy ecosystem than sport fishing.

Aeration is going to be a problem given how far electric is. Solar maybe. Or run an air line from the place where I have electricity.

I’ll figure out how to get the jeep out later.

 

[jrsulo]

Does your area have a stocking program ??,,,,,they could tell you better,,,,,,nice pond !!

 

[bluedog225]

I’ll check with the ag service. Not finding a lot of fisheries in area.

And thanks.

Be nice to find a way to run a small bubble using shore mounted solar panel voltage. Not sure if that‘s a thing.

 

[zendriver]

Looks nice.

That a pretty small pond, so you might be dealing with water that gets pretty warm in summer, even if aerated..
Maybe start with bluegill?

God luck.

 

[JeepYJ]

Windmill powered aerators are an option

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[Torque&Recoil]

We have some white amur to help to keep down vegetation. They are sterile and can't reproduce.

Aeration would be good. I should do that to our pond. Not sure about solar, but I have seen little "windmill" type air pumps. (dang, JeepYJ beat me to it)

 

[Firebrick43]

A lot of the ponds here use windmill driving air pumps as aerators as shown above

Also a lot of people here throw a few rye bales of hay into the pond (whole) every so often to keep algae at bay

 

[Shiftless]

. Or run an air line from the place where I have electricity.

How far away is that? Is it not too hard to trench that far? The required pressure for your air blower is dictated by the water depth. My little koi pond is only 2 feet deep so an off the shelf small pond blower pump works fine.

 

[bluedog225]

How far away is that? Is it not too hard to trench that far? The required pressure for your air blower is dictated by the water depth. My little koi pond is only 2 feet deep so an off the shelf small pond blower pump works fine.

Guessing about 1/4 mile. I was thinking 1/4” PE tubing. Run it down the creek bed. Would never see it.

 

[rlitman]

...Also a lot of people here throw a few rye bales of hay into the pond (whole) every so often to keep algae at bay

I thought you're only supposed to use barley straw.

 

[SouthernIllinois]

This pond was built in 1998.
It is literally in the backyard.
It's never had any form of aeration.
99% of all the farm ponds around here don't either.

Most will tell you to stock it with minnows the first year followed by game fish the next year or two.

Dad stocked this pond when it was new but never really did anything after that.

When I bought it and moved home in 2024 I added a few LMB, Bluegill and channel catfish.
In 2025 I added more of the same but in fewer numbers.

I have also sunk some Christmas trees for structure and a 55 gallon trashcan for the catfish to spawn in.

This coming winter, I am putting pea gravel on the ice along the bank in a few spots to help make spawning beds for the bluegill.

I feed them most days of the week.

Fishing is pretty good - I usually fish a few minutes every evening and rarely do I get skunked.

I do think my LMB are underweight - I might have put too many in and now they are starving. I need to start taking some out.

If you are on Facebook, there are several pond management pages although I would take any advice off them with a grain of salt.

 

[Firebrick43]

I thought you're only supposed to use barley straw.

Maybe it works better? No one that I know raises barley around here. Several guys plant rye for cover crops and will bale it. They are very closely related.

 

[Shiftless]

Guessing about 1/4 mile. I was thinking 1/4” PE tubing.

I don’t think that will work very well because of the big pressure drop from internal resistance with such a long length of skinny 1/4 inch tubing.
That’s a big pond to aerate. You’ll likely need multiple bubbler heads requiring several CFM each. Better talk to a pro designer.
I run about 20 feet of half inch PVC from the blower to the pond and then about 6 feet of 1/4 inch tubing from the edge of the pond to the bubbler head.

 

[My Old Tools]

Go on over to PondBoss.com and ask your questions. They have a number of experts on the subject.

 

[Hellpig]

Go on over to PondBoss.com and ask your questions. They have a number of experts on the subject.

Came here to post this.
It's the GJ of ponds.

 

[Codyboy]

I need to start looking at stocking my pond too. It has had some minnows come in from another pond upstream but haven't seen signs of fish yet.
There are several places listed for stocking but I haven't looked too deeply into it yet.

https://texasaquaculture.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2026-05-13-TAA-Availability-List.pdf

https://lochowranch.com/fish-for-stocking/