Hello Fellow Anglers - Also hoping to get some input from those who stock ponds

I work at an office campus in the North Texas area (Frisco) that recently just had a pond filled on the property. The pond is roughly 2 acres with a floating fountain that sprays 30ft high, in the middle pond. The pond itself is currently without underwater vegetation, muddy bottom, and only has grass growing along the banks...kind of your typical pond found in a "business park" area. It has been at capacity for about 4 months and one of the "benefits" of moving to this new office with its pond on site was the ability to catch and release fish.

Well I had advocated to our leadership and facilities representatives to partner with Texas Parks and Wildlife in the creation and maintenance of this pond. I thought it would be a great partnership to not only create a body of water that represents wildlife of the surrounding area, but would help publicly as well.

Our facilities representative just got back to me that they were quoted $30K to initially stock the pond and then $10K a month for Parks and Wildlife to help maintain it. I don't know what company/companies they checked with. I am not a pond owner nor am I an expert in the stocking and maintenance of ponds, but does this sound like a reasonable price based on the details above??? Would enjoy to hear any feedback or experience from business owners of pond maintenance companies, TPWD officials or just anyone with any helpful information.

How dang big is it? And now way would I have the state manage anything of mine lol

Well since I have seen the pond when it was empty, I would guess that the deepest the pond would get is 8ft-10ft and I estimate it to be no more than 2 acres.

And I think when they told me Parks and Wildlife for the monthly maintenance, they were referring to the Cities Park and Wildlife either (Frisco or Plano)

Here is the most recent Satellite image on Google Maps. I have outlined the pond area in blue

That seems pretty steep for 2 acres. and 10K a month!!! Thats ridiculous.

Yea, that's what I was thinking...so my mind set is they either gave me bogus numbers to get me off their back or whatever company they got the quote from saw big corporation and thought big dollar :p

I would go with the latter. Check out todd Overton to get an Idea of what it would cost.

Thanks for the suggestion,

I checked out his website Overton Fisheries and it had a good amount of information. Based on at least the cost of bass and bluegill, there would be no where near $30K. Heck even putting in fish feeders doesn't get it closer to $30K.

But I did see some of the other services that are provided and I guess it really depends on what the pond may need (water treatment, aquatic plants, food management) to make it a sustainable habitat for healthy fish

$10k per month....$120k for a year. That is ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. Some one should be investigated.

I agree... that's insanity.

Don't think I've ever heard of anything that ridiculous. Those extra services come nowhere that number. Sounds like they don't really want to do it.

Banker Fisherman, call me. Those numbers are way out of line. Been doing this for 40 years. Happy to help figure out a manageable plan that makes better sense. (903)564-5372. Let my staff know who you are and I'll call you back and we'll work out a smarter program.

My backyard pond is around that same size. I share it with five really good neighbors. We do our own. My favorite is blue cats. They will beg you to eat out of their hand. They all died over the years.



We just restocked with blue cats. Not much help but the price made me appreciate the efforts of my neighbors.

Thank you Bob, I will reach out to our facilities team and see if they are still pursuing having the pond stocked and maintained.

$30K to stock a 2 acre pond ? I stocked a 4 acre pond for $500 and thought that was to much. Bass and bluegill are usually the choice for N Texas ponds, and bass fingerlings go for about $85 per 100 and coppernose for about $50 per 100. The important thing in new ponds is to get the forage established and then maintain some kind of equilibrium between forage and predators. Get as many bluegill as you can afford and add then about 200 bass - with just 50, they would probably still eventually overpopulate and become stunted without maintaining the pond. And, TP&W wants $10K per month to maintain the pond ? It must have been April fool's day when they quoted their fees to your ' facilities' guy. Gee, for the money those clowns are asking, you could hire someone like Bob Lusk who actually knows something about ponds and the maintenance to keep them going.

I think $30k would stock tawakoni lol. $300 would stock a 2 acre lake.