Striper guides/fisherman in the Dallas area. I am wanting to stock a couple large private ponds with shad. In a north Dallas suburb. Fish farms want a 1000 lb minimum order I can't afford anything like that. Anyone out there think they could come up with shad to stock? Or have any ideas for me?


Yes it is legal. From TPWD:
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/faq/landwater/fisheries/

Can I catch fish in public water and take them home to stock my pond?

Fish that are legally harvested from public water may be stocked in a private pond. �Legally harvested� fish are caught by someone who holds the required fishing license, observing all applicable length limits, daily bag limits, and gear restrictions

Captain Steve Barnes holds a bait license and you could purchase from him. It would probably be cheaper to buy from one person rather than to pay several who have boats/bait tanks. He's a TFF member. A search will probably easily find him so that you can send him a PM.

Other idea: spend some $$ and buy you a bait tank or two. Go to the lake, catch them your self and make enough trips as necessary or as you can afford. We're approaching the time where you can easily catch bait right next to the bank so you can use that to your advantage if you don't have a boat.

Careful.
It won't take long for the shad to eat everything in the pond if you stock to many.
Back in the old day some TSA guys stocked there farm tanks. After a while the shad they caught in those tanks were very skinny because they had eaten all the available food source.

It's also becoming illegal to transport any fish from one lake to another due to zebra mussels ..
Better be careful where you take them from. Many lake shave been added to the list ..
They just passed this law within the last year or two..would love to see em inforce it along with the "clean drain and dry your boat".
another law on the books that probably can't and won't be enforced..but a law non the less.

Hey randy....do they live well in stock ponds??? I woulda thought the water would get too warm for them.???

It works in ponds that are more than 8 ft deep In my opinion.Ive done it.

I always thought I would like to have a pond about 10-12ft deep and 1/2 acre in size just for shad. Make catching bait easier!!!

There is a tiny pond in Weatherford that I used to go castnet perch at--I would catch big--6-10inch gizzard shad in it. Couldn't be over 15 acres and not very deep.

Ya that would be way cool to have a private pond for shad..I'm just really wondering how they would survive...do they spawn in small ponds say 1/2 to 1 acre if it were 10 feet deep ??

JD I would think so. It may need to be a little deeper up north and maybe a little larger. I am basing it on what little I have researched. Now on a pond this size you couldn't stock any predator fish in it or the shad population couldn't survive.

Now y'all got me thinking I need to dig a pond and raise my own :):)

Gonna have to research it some more !!!

Thank you for all your feedback. I sent an email to Captain Steve Barnes. Hopefully I can get a few stocked before they spawn. I grew up fishing several ponds in the Norman, OK area and they all had good populations of gizzards. Both small (1/2 acre) and large (30+ acres) I never saw any with threads. I hope they do well.