Just curious if anyone on this site has used stockmypond or anyone like that to stock their pond... Like the site says it is say $550 for a 1/2 acre package plus delivery... How much is delivery and is it worth it?

Thanks

I ordered fingerlings from Dunn's fish farm and they will deliver to local feed store this saturday. They list
their schedule on website.

when i lived in Crockett, i went to this place...it was sooooooooo neet...gr8 guys helped so much ...easy to get to also...worth the trip to visit and bring back your stock n oxygen bags

http://www.overtonfisheries.com/

Interesting concept...to sell package deals.

I haven't used these folks but I can tell you I personally don't like the package they offer:

1) first off, crappie are a huge mistake in small ponds. Most people who stock them strongly regret that decision and it is difficult to recover from.
2) I strongly urge not to mix the bluegills with the hybrid BG. Hybrid BGs as a target fish in small ponds are fine but absolutely not mixed with standard BG.
3) catfish are a personal preference...but stocking at 300 per acre along with 200 per acre bass = disaster waiting to happen. You won't be happy with either at those rates.
4) after you drop out the crappie, hyb BG, and catfish, then reduce the number of bass by about 1/2 and then you will have a recipe for a good package.

By making some mods to the menu and buying ala carte, you can save significant $ and substantially improve the package.


p.s. I should add that stocking everything at the same time is a big mistake also. Stock the fatheads first. Give them a chance to settle down and get acclimated. Bring in BG's second, and wait one growing season, if you can exercise the patience, before bringing in the LMB fingerlings.

Also ask what type LMB...florida, native, or cross? Get mixture, if you can something like 25% florida, 25% native, and 50% cross. This has proven to be very effective in my ponds.

1) Listen to Meadowlark, he's got some very nice fishing ponds.

2) Please, please, support a Texas fish farm instead of an out of state truck.
You will find that the truck runs a very long route, if you are the last stop, those are some tired fish.
The truck route has a limited supply of species and usually try to sell that "package deal," that more reflects profitability for the fish truck and not the long term success of the fishery.

There are many ways to stock a fish pond, the pond owner should seek the advice of a well established, local, fish hatchery for help. Outline your goals, have a good handle on your resource (size, depth, shape, watershed type, water chemistry, etc.) and ask the hatchery manager to help you devise a custom plan for your goals and your resource.

Time and money are interchangeable. You can stock everything all at once, but it takes a lot more fish and a different approach than the staged stocking mentioned by Meadowlark.

I have stocked a pond on Friday for it to be ready for fishing on Saturday. No problem, just a lot of $$$$ compared to other, longer timed plans.

You can have a crappie pond, but you will need to work a lot harder at managing it than a bass or catfish pond. I discourage the use of crappie in most situations, but, the owner is the one with the goal set. I've done ponds for yellow cat, crappie, mudcat, green sunfish, and all manner of things, based on the desires and goals of the pond owner. Not everybody wants a bass pond. Some folks just want a ready source of good trotline bait.

Brett

In Midland, your 1/2 acre pond will probably be 1/3 acre or less in August. Over stocking is a pretty good recipe for a fish kill due to oxygen depletion. Bass, crappie and bluegills are all spawning machines. When, not if, the O2 crashes, the bigger fish always die first. Clean up isn't much fun.

PERSONALLY, I would go with hybrid bluegills and catfish. The hybrid bluegills are great for kids and the kid that is all of us. Catch and eat the cats at 2 pounds. You can easily restock with 8 inch cats.

I also wouldn't use hybrid stripers in Midland. If you catch one in warm weather, they are going to die.

My goodness Dave, how times have changed. I still have open wounds from the Pond Boss ridicule heaped on me for saying the same things years ago. LOL, they tarred and feathered anyone who even hinted at anything favorable to hybrid bluegills...and we all know hybrid stripers NEVER die, LOL.

I'm glad to read your words of wisdom and agree with them...except the catfish, LOL.

Hybrid sunfish with catfish is an easy to grow pond. Just feed them out of a bag.

Oxygen depletion can still be a problem. Most of the ponds that I work with have a simple compressor/diffuser based aeration system. Using cheap poly hose, the compressor can be located as far as a mile from the pond. A small pond would use either a 1/6 or 1/4 hp compressor which cost about like a flood lamp to operate.

Thank You guys for sharing this info. I learn something everytime I read this type of thread.

Larry, remember the days when everybody was trying to grow a 1 lb BG? You, George and I had already done it but kept our mouths shut. Mine were mixed hybrids in my 1/3 acre pond.

I have never seen a problem with hybrids but then I really have a love affair with green sunfish. They will out fight a BG or CNBG every time. Unlike hybrids, I have seen them over spawn but not like the thoroughbreds.

Catfish just make a lot of sense to me in Texas. In less than a couple of acres, O2 depletion happens way too often if you don't work your butt off trying to keep up with bass spawning.

Gotta admit, it took me about 10 years to believe you on the benefits of tilapia. I seldom stock them because I think it takes about it 50 pounds per acre to feed bass. I have a real problem with buying temporary fish.

A good green sunfish pond can be set up using green sunfish instead of bluegill along with bass then feeding pellets to the greens. The bass usually won't get very big as they and green sunfish compete to a degree, but it will allow for some really big greens to eventually grow up as the bass keep the numbers in check.

Its been a loooong time ago, but one year I produced a group of green sunfish/warmouth hybrids. They were some pretty cool fish, almost a bass and fond of eating tadpoles. I tried every hybrid sunfish I could find a mate for....bluegill/warmouth, redbreast/green, redear/green, redear/warmouth, and had a few really interesting specimens grow out of them.

I don't think it is good form to lambast anybody for what their goals for their own pond should be. Its your pond, make it what you want it to be. Remember, though, some tings are easier to do than others.

LOL, yes Dave and 1 lb BG was/is no big deal.

I love green sunfish, but prefer the hybrids in small ponds because I can control their offspring very readily with bass. I think it was what, at least 10 years ago, maybe more that I purchased some Georgia Giants for an "experiment". Pond Boss literally condemned and ostracized me and predicted I would have to drain that pond after three or four years and start over. LOL, today that little pond is still one of my favorite places to fish on Earth...with a fly rod, small bug; it is just so enjoyable.

I restocked it once about three or four years ago when the big drought dried it up...but that little 1/4 acre tank has provided me and my grandchildren untold hours of fun....just hybrid 'gills, a fly rod, and a bug. Absolutely love it!

I think I like the Greens because they are a mutt that nobody else likes. If I tied a BG and GSF tail-to-tails, the greenie would drown the pure bred.

I never tried he GG's but a neighbor did. They didn't do at all well in N Texas. And it could have been a variety of reasons.

Lots of things have changed. Brian Cotton has totally feed trained Redears. Bobby Rice in Florida is stocking snook, flounders and some other salt water fish in his Florida fresh water pond. It almost makes me want to go back to my idea of small bull sharks and piranhas in my North Texas forage ponds.

With two light winters, I grew a bunch of flounders in a lake near Crockett up to near 13 pounds each and caught several of them one summer. That was about 30 years ago.

I thought it would be impossible to grow flounders in such soft water, but they did great. I got the flounders (then no size or number limits) at about a half pound each from a commercial fisherman in Freeport. I put them in a tank and changed the water from salt to fresh over two days then grew them one summer in a small pond with tilapia. Then I transferred the two and three pounders to a 10 acre reservoir and grew them another year in a lake full of shad. The next summer I caught several from 10 to 13 pounds each.

Then it came the winter of '83 and killed them all.

We could not get redfish to adapt to the soft water, they need at least 150 ppm hardness and 1 ppt salinity.