Let’s say, hypothetically, there was a new pond constructed which was several acres. In this hypothetical, there is not an option to professional stock it, but it is near other water so you could reasonably guerrilla stock it.

What is your action plan? What species first, how many, what strategy, assuming only transplants?

This is hypothetical so the only rule is not professionally stocked. The goal is trophy largemouth in under a decade.

Hopefully this will be a fun topic as many of us enter icemageddon tomorrow.

Theoretically, I’d take a kid fishing every day for a couple weeks to a bunch of different nearby lakes and keep every bluegill caught. Get a thousand bluegill in there to start. Let them have a couple spawning sessions to get established. In parallel I’d be sieneing a limit of shiners as often as I could. Baitfish is the base of the pyramid. Get it established and steady. Then think about bass.

Then when you want to have trophy largemouth in the pond, go catch some at the nearby impoundment and move them over.

19 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

Theoretically, I’d take a kid fishing every day for a couple weeks to a bunch of different nearby lakes and keep every bluegill caught. Get a thousand bluegill in there to start. Let them have a couple spawning sessions to get established. In parallel I’d be sieneing a limit of shiners as often as I could. Baitfish is the base of the pyramid. Get it established and steady. Then think about bass.

Then when you want to have trophy largemouth in the pond, go catch some at the nearby impoundment and move them over.

That is basically exactly what I was thinking. I can get an almost infinite amount of sunfish and shiners in there by the end of July with just my two boys. The challenge is getting decent bass in there afterwards.

I have a 2 acre pond that I had drained and rebuilt almost 20 years ago. When it refilled I stocked it with largemouth and bluegill fingerlings along with a lot of fathead minnows. The minnows bred like rats and provided a lot of food for the small fish. Since the fatheads are slow they got eaten quickly. Start with smaller fish, feed them and you'd be surprised how fast the bass and bluegill grow.

On 1/24/2026 at 4:45 PM, RobA said:

I have a 2 acre pond that I had drained and rebuilt almost 20 years ago. When it refilled I stocked it with largemouth and bluegill fingerlings along with a lot of fathead minnows. The minnows bred like rats and provided a lot of food for the small fish. Since the fatheads are slow they got eaten quickly. Start with smaller fish, feed them and you'd be surprised how fast the bass and bluegill grow.

Awesome! Did you put any structure in it to protect the bait or anything like that? I'm thinking of stuff like that in addition to species to stock.

I added several piles of boulders, milk crate structures, PVC 'trees' and some 30 gallon poly barrels (lids and bottoms removed) bolted together. I could do this pretty easily before the pond refilled. The bass and bluegill feed off of each other's offspring. I got most of my info and advice from pondboss.com

In this situation, the first thing I would do is catch a couple of hundred bluegill from nearby areas. Once I had stocked them, I would wait around a month and a half to catch and stock 30 channel catfish. Since golden shiners and shad are a lot harder to catch, I would set out traps and stock as many crawfish as possible that make burrows safe for the pond. Finally, after the ecosystem looked stable, I would add a fountain or some sort of oxygen-producing machine and 60 bass. I would fish it decently often to see how the fish were coming along and remove some if needed. Over time, with limited abundant prey and few predators, the bass should see tremendous growth.

I'd ask @Blue Raider Bob about catching baitfish. He catches them all the time. Pond-building, I'm guessing, starts with baitfish.

If you do not want to stock with hatchery fingerlings, then I would do as I did, allow pond to fill the first year so it can produce the phytoplankton that all growth will build upon. Second year, release a few breeding size BG and Shellcrakers. With slight predation, they will give future predators a solid base. I enjoyed catching BG and various minnow types with cast nets and traps. Third year I introduced LM to a young pond teeming with BG fry and algae blooms. The LM spawned the first year and of this writing, the pond is 9 years old with successful BG and LM spawns every year. I also introduced hundreds of Crayfish from my trap setting adventures. My pond is only 2/3 acre so a pond several acres would need more of a base than I provided. As far as plants and cover.....I have 45 half barrels with aquatic vegetation and have transplanted Lotus to coves with soil depth. The water plants provide cover for all the aquatic insects needed to complete the ecosystem. You will also need designated "Loafin'" Spot to enjoy your efforts. I used a solar powered feeder to feed the BG everyday in warmer weather, and the BG always cooperate. Sometimes the frenzies will include a green explosion!

Just a couple more pics.

Since I finished the pond, I have had several types of ducks visit, Mallards and Geese raise broods, Otters, Beavers, and Muskrats wear out their welcome, various Herons, Kingfishers, frogs, turtles, and aquatic snakes make their homes, as well as many types of Dragon, and Damsel flies. This past summer found MAYFLIES!!!! boy was I glad of that.

On 1/23/2026 at 7:42 PM, FishTax said:

Let’s say, hypothetically, there was a new pond constructed which was several acres. In this hypothetical, there is not an option to professional stock it, but it is near other water so you could reasonably guerrilla stock it.

What is your action plan? What species first, how many, what strategy, assuming only transplants?

This is hypothetical so the only rule is not professionally stocked. The goal is trophy largemouth in under a decade.

Hopefully this will be a fun topic as many of us enter icemageddon tomorrow.

One other thing that was mentioned that I have lots of experience with are Fathead Minnows. My thoughts are as follows.....

Very expensive forage because if you already have LM in pond, they will not survive to breeding age. They are slow/weak swimmers that stand no chance. I have bought thousands of them in natural, and the Rosy Red variety. I love the Rosy's because they are so easy to see........but you only see them, a few weeks and then they are calories! Same with Shiners. I enjoy catching my own fodder from area creeks in homemade fish traps. I also seek shad when I'm out on the area lakes.

If new pond does not yet have LM, then by all means, stock it with Fatheads, but only after an algae bloom so they will not starve.

4 hours ago, Flukeflicker said:

I would add a fountain or some sort of oxygen-producing machine

Great point I had forgotten about. I use a air pump from a 110V source in my barn in addition to a solar powered well pump to maintain water level and to oxygenate.

@Blue Raider Bob your spot is beautiful.

In my case, I don't own it, it's a neighborhood retention pond being built. So I won't be able to do a fountain and am not going to pay to stock it. This thread has been very helpful though, as I've learned I need to focus on bait first. My boys will be doing lots of adventures with crawfish trap and throw net as soon as things thaw (yes we're in nc and water is frozen, someone do a wellness check on @Pat Brown 😎)

I'm not sure what species the minnows are that are in the shallow of lakes and ponds around here, I assume shiners but have no idea. Whatever they are, they're easy to catch and will be going in the pond along with bluegill. I can probably catch some shad with a net as well.

I watched about a 10 acre pond from it's very beginning, being carved out of a midwest cornfield. It was on a Boy Scout Reservation. Being short on funds, the pond was not stocked for 2 years, only used for swimming and canoeing. When the pond was re-evaluated for stocking, it was discovered to already have a large population of Bluegills; they had not been stocked, and there was no tributary source from where they could have entered. It was determined they had been brought in by birds; Blue Herons, Geese, etc.. Eggs from other water bodies had stuck to their feet and eggs from devoured bluegills had been passed in bird droppings. Interesting theory.

This pond is directly beside a lake. About 200' from the bank. So if the egg thing is real and I believe it is, it'll definitely get stocked some that way. But I'm here to help it along and curate to the extent I can!

Bluegill stocking is the easy part. My kids catch hundreds a year so we'll just have a fishing party with friends to jumpstart things. Other species is the hard part. What are everyone thoughts on adding channel cats?

On 2/7/2026 at 6:26 AM, FishTax said:

This pond is directly beside a lake. About 200' from the bank. So if the egg thing is real and I believe it is, it'll definitely get stocked some that way. But I'm here to help it along and curate to the extent I can!

Bluegill stocking is the easy part. My kids catch hundreds a year so we'll just have a fishing party with friends to jumpstart things. Other species is the hard part. What are everyone thoughts on adding channel cats?

Some states have an advisory service to assist you, even take water samples; worth checking into.

On 2/7/2026 at 6:26 AM, FishTax said:

This pond is directly beside a lake. About 200' from the bank. So if the egg thing is real and I believe it is, it'll definitely get stocked some that way. But I'm here to help it along and curate to the extent I can!

Bluegill stocking is the easy part. My kids catch hundreds a year so we'll just have a fishing party with friends to jumpstart things. Other species is the hard part. What are everyone thoughts on adding channel cats?

My thoughts on Channel Cats........I put in twenty fingerlings when i first began pond stocking. They readily came to the feeder and they were enjoyable and grew fast. Unfortunately, that winter we had a family of otters move up the wet weather creek from the Stones River, move in under my dock, and wipe out ALL of the Channel Cats, as well as BG and Bass. I pulled up dock boards and blocked entrances to discourage. Later I would add the occasional Channel Cat I would catch while bass fishing but every winter I would have otter issues and the cats were the first to go. Where I'm going with this is, Channel cats compete with other predators for limited feed in a small pond. For that reason I am hesitant to restock (besides the otter problem), 2nd is I do not eat fish so the cats would be purely aesthetic for me. Just my take.

On 2/7/2026 at 7:26 AM, FishTax said:

This pond is directly beside a lake. About 200' from the bank. So if the egg thing is real and I believe it is, it'll definitely get stocked some that way. But I'm here to help it along and curate to the extent I can!

Bluegill stocking is the easy part. My kids catch hundreds a year so we'll just have a fishing party with friends to jumpstart things. Other species is the hard part. What are everyone thoughts on adding channel cats?

Absent good science that says do it, channel cats are meat eaters. You're starting from an empty pond and adding meat (bluegills). You want bass to eat the meat, not catfish. And last I checked, channel cats aren't high on a bass's diet.