We have a 7 acre pond that dried up nearly completely during the drought a few years ago. The pond filled all the way back up the following year, and we restocked with fathead minnows, a few hundred bluegill, and a 100 florida strain largemouths (fingerlings) from some seriously great genetics. We have not seen any sign of fish in the 2 years since then. I did some research and found that the survival rate for a pond that size is around 50% during the first year. I am trying to decide if it would be best to do another round of largemouth fingerlings and bluegill, and if there would be any benefit. Anybody have any ideas? Finances will only allow us to purchase a small number of fish. We also have the option of catching fish from nearby lakes and reservoirs and transporting them back with the help of a live well, but my buddy is the one with the boat and time is limited as well. What to do? What to do? I have no patience.

I'm no expert but 100 doesn't seem like very many for 7 acres. We went through the same thing and restocked our 2 ponds which one is approximately a half acre and one is about 3/4. We put 25 and 50 fingerling bass in them, 5 lbs of fat heads in each one, 10 tilapia in each one to help the bass grow. Also, we put in some bass from another lake and I caught some big bluegills and put them in the ponds. We went by the recommendations that the guy at the place we bought the fish from and we have 4 and 5 lb bass already but it is a lot tighter quarters than 7 acres so its easier to find them.

You might want to ask this question in the Ponds, Tanks & Private Waters forum here. There are some guys in there that really know their stuff.

^^^This^^^

In particular Fishbreeder and salex.

I'd stock smaller numbers of fish more frequently. Most public lakes have been stocked with nothing but Florida strain bass by TPWD since the 80's and those adult bass (of legal size) can be transferred to private lakes. If you are looking to jump-start a new or recovering lake those adult bass are the way to go! In the fall of 2010 I transferred 200 adult bass from a big private lake (8-10 acres) to a smaller lake (2 acres) that had no bass in it at all for some reason. In Sept 2011 the big lake had a bad fish kill but the smaller lake held on to become a really nice bass lake with a very diverse age structure to the bass. The big lake has just begun to recover..

Brett knows his stuff.