What's the best fish for stocking a pond in Southern Oregon between the coast range and the Cascades?

Do you have a county agricultural extension agent?

Tilapia, if it doesn't freeze.

One of the best eating fish is the freshwater perch. Had it 20 years ago in Troy Montana . They don’t get big, but they are mild tasting. Would also make a good food source for bigger fish. You might want to read more so you don’t have any regrets. Best of luck! Sounds fun.

Yeah, something along those lines.

And check with the ODFW to see what's legal..............or take you chances if the pond fails and you introduce a non-native fish into a salmon/steelhead watershed. They'd not be happy with you.

Get the water analyzed before you put any fish in.

Been thinking on this. Pond design might lend itself better to certain fish. Depth, and a place for fish to spawn. Got any pics? Hastings would be a good source of knowledge .

Do the fish have appropriate cover in the pond? A few cormorants will take off any bright idea real quick. And don’t think that you will get them with a shotgun. The damn things are smart. They will wait until you leave the house before a raiding fish party.

Don’t ask how I know.

I'd google "pond stockers in my area" and see what the results are.

Our local pond stockers come up from LA and have suggested lists/combinations of what works in our area. They'll have a route and set days that they'll be passing through. Around my area the normal combination is; LM Bass, Crappie, and Bluegill.

Don't forget about "maintenance", we routinely put in 20 grass carp a year to keep the weeds down on our 9 acre pond

Mako

PondBoss.com

Are you going to build a scaled down version of the Ark to go in it?

I would think bluegill, largemouth bass and bullhead. Most ponds aren’t very deep and can have winter kill. Gill’s, bass and bullheads are all tough and adapt well to small water. If anything you’ll have to weed them out to keep from having too many and small stunted fish.

How big is the pond?

If it's big enough I agree with bluegill and bass. Large enough pond could also support catfish.

The advice about consulting fish- knowledgeable local G&F or county extension folks is very good. When I decided to create a big windmill fed pond at 8k elevation in the SW, and before I did a bunch of excavation/dozer work, two such folks were pleased - even eager - to take a look and advise. Wound up with a good result - plenty deep at one end for coldest part of winter, good spawning space at other end, some protective cover, etc. - and fish to fit.

Maybe pray for some fish.


Works for socket sets I hear....

It don’t take much for cats

What kind of fish will Oregon let you put in your own pond? What do other people in your area stock that does well there?
Here I would stock minnows, then Bluegill, Redears, Largemouth Bass.

Don't forget your predator fish. If it's big enough, get some sterile ones like tiger muskie. Also, they have a sterile carp to help clean the edges. Make sure you have access to minnows as well. Good luck and keep us posted. I'm planning one as well.

What do you want and how much effort and money are you willing to invest.

Thow some pan fish, bass, and cats in that you catch somewhere.

There will be fish in your pond, and that's all many want.

Otherwise, analysis of water quality and exchange, advice from the extension agent,
advice from stockers...will set you up with a working ecology.

Even then, you likely can't build a functioning circular ecology that repopulates.

Had a neighbor in Arizona that put a pond on his property.
I asked him if he went the Fed. Gooberment program way of Stocking his Pond.
He told me that there were way to many strings attached with the Federal program
He went to the State and they told him what he could have and he purchased them direct from them.

That was around 6 years ago and he has to many for the size of his pond.

When I get my pond up and running I will be approaching him about purchasing some of his fish from him.

Good Luck with how it works out for ya.











had a neighbor

You would be better off calling up your local DNR and getting hold of a fish biologist .

I have built three ponds. I always stock fathead minnows for the base of the food chain, the year after stock your game fish they will have plenty to eat. Ypu will also find fish you did not stock . I think the birds or other critters bring eggs from other waterways.

ODFW, the Oregon Dept of FISH and Wildlife is where one would go to get hold of a fish biologist.

It's likely the OP, living in Oregon, knows who ODFW is and that they deal with FISH

Oregon does not seem to have a DNR, "natural resources": seems to fall under the Ag dept.

https://www.oregon.gov/ODA/programs/NaturalResources/Pages/Default.aspx

Ringman,

you may want to consider something else

Where are you getting the water to fill your pond? You may want to find out if you need a permit, if you haven't done so already, to fill the darn thing once built. Do you have rights to the water you're going to use?

Some interesting info here

https://www.schwabe.com/publication/oregon-water-law-questions-and-answers/

Damn, it's nothing short of amazing how you figured that out. I would've just gone on the internet and posted a question.

You're thinking of loaves.

Is it that complicated out west? That’s an honest question. I’ve never heard of filling a pond with water. It seems like that would require a crazy number of trucks to fill and keep full.

In this part of the country ponds are dug and the water table fills it. Digging out a pond in regions where the water table can’t fill it wouldn’t seem feasible.

It is. Here, you're not even supposed to collect rainwater off your roof.

Water is scarce over much of the west. Seven states are now trying to work out how to divvy up water from the Colorado River. If people in Colorado diverted the water that originates here, downstream users would be royally screwed.

Depth and size determine the fish type. Bass require cooler water, thus depth. Buegill, love warm shallower water. You need to make shelves for shallow water grass that allows fresh water shrimp to grow, they are the base of the food chain.
If you have no connection to running water, creek or river, it is an agricultural pond and beyond government control. However put in a dam, with run off, and that brings them back into play.

I have two ponds, the wading birds bring fish and frog eggs with them. a their legs. The herons are protected and will raid your fish ponds. We have bald eagles come fishing, also.

Dang eagles will flat do a number on fish that come to surface,,, anything under 2 bs are in danger,,

here if the state stocks it you have to allow access to the public.

Southern Oregon can get hot.

A shallow pond in Medford will get too hot for trout

Normally trout are in ponds north of Grants Pass (rainy section of Oregon)

So
Local weather conditions will matter

Where is this pond exactly?

See that award there in my avatar space.........................


it ain't there fer nuthin' bub.

And we have RIGHTS, dammnit!

Rights? You live in California 😂

How deep is it?

Yeah, as smokepole points out it's complicated. Not only from a water standpoint but from an aquatic organism standpoint too. A pond stocked with non-native predatory fish, or even just "minnows" , located in a watershed that doesn't already have those species, may or may not be allowed depending on the site ( and maye which State your pond is in) . Especially if you want to put the pond in a watershed that has listed aquatic species.

Depending on location, digging a pond down to the water table would be problematic. Would have to be an awfully deep pond here to hit water, as in 60'+ here in a wet year and we're on the valley floor. We ain't flat like some other States, neither is Southern OR where the OP is. Ponds would then have to be filled with runoff (which someone else might have rights to) or well water, which in some States is already a permitted deal.

Unfortunately, experience has shown that ponds fail and fish etc get out into the local waters, or folks get tired of their pond and drain it but don't want to kill their fish and down the pipe they go too. Ooops, grass carp now in a watershed that didn't have them previously. Not every State wants flying carp in their rivers/lakes.

Someone earlier in the thread (Dillon???) mentioned catching some fish and putting them in your pond. Don't get caught doing that in some states, that'll cause trouble for sure. Especially if those fish, and the water used to get them home to the pond, came from waters with hydrilla, or non-native mussels and crawdads and such.

Our neighbor cleaned out a mud hole.
It's a really nice little lake now. Probably a half acre.
Two years now and it's doing great.

I'm thinking "copper nose bluegill"!
Grow fast, great eating, tough little fish.

Well, if you're an early settler you have water rights at least.

I have a seasonal creek with two branches joining on our property. I cannot stop or impede that water from getting downstream as I don't have the rights to it.



This water flows in from the other side of the property, off BLM land. I can't stop or impede it either. Goes under the road and into the creek after it flows onto the neighbor's place.




I can, at least in this State for the moment, collect rain water that falls on the hard surface roofs of our house and outbuildings.

And of course, everyone has the "right" to camp on public property like sidewalks and stuff

Carp.

I always thought it was a meatball, since you're eye-talian??

Actually, California has senior water rights to the Colorado.

Those sneaky bastards.

Beaver award?--------------Meatball?---------------------???

about the only difference is I could eat the meatball.

Yup, and at $10+ per grass carp it sucks..

Luckily eagles kind of suck at fishing, something like a 30% success rate per diving "swoop". The osprey's are a whole different story, a definite "dive" very effective and fun to watch.

Do you have a local college with a decent biology/environmental science department nearby? If so, contact the head of the department and see if he is willing to put together an assessment team to give you a full profile of your pond. There are a ton of variables that go into the assessment including nighttime O2 levels, how far down the light penetrates, plant and algae in the water, water chemistry and what minerals that are on the bottom of the pond.

When I was in college the local lake owners were begging us for our services and in turn we usually got a research paper out of it.

Good luck!

eagles
ospreys
great blue herons
crested night herons
seagulls
king fishers
cormorants
if the pond is big, pelicans (God help you)

Then:
mink
otters
coons

2 lbs is not a safe limit. I've seen pelicans killed with 26" trout inside. Otters will take anything they want.

Once a critter discovers the buffet, they tend to invite all their buddies for a party.....

Don't get caught shooting any of them, except the coons....

Until the last 20 years eagles and Ospreys didn’t exist here.
They sure do now.

The buffet was mentioned, once they find it they don’t fill their belly. They pretty much stay as long as they can find food. Their success rates aren’t great either, you will find stabbed fish that escaped to die later. Totally wasted.


First I heard of the problem was a sportsman’s club that raises and stocks trout, under the eye of PFC. The warden was there looking things over and saw Herons at the tanks.

Immediately pissed he commented on them, and was told they were doing everything they could think of, “But we can’t get rid of them, and they are protected.”

“Yeah, they are. Federal crime, huge fines. Be a damn shame if one flew through your archery range and got killed.
If the Feds found out there would be a big stink.”

The Herons soon disappeared.

I know of two guys who had problems with them in private ponds. Both found ways to solve their problems, just like rural farmers have for centuries.

I forgot to thank you guys for posting. There's a lot of good information here and I'll be able to use it.

I'd listen to Geno.

Ymmv

Add piranhas to the mix[they'll help with the 4 leggers].

Church out-west types that act churchy but don’t go to church.

Pfft

Mennonites will clean a pond out way faster

Lol, back when I stocked ponds, the stories I would hear about people sneaking in to a neighbor’s pond to catch stocked trout……. You can kinda understand the young kids, but some were grown-assed men!

People lose their mind when there’s big fish involved.

Are we talking about Bristoe again?

Folks sneaking in to some of the places I worked to catch old brood fish with worn down fins and rounded noses!

But, the one place had some lakers pushing 25lbs. Boss would keep them about 13 years, then stock them in L Ontario.

That's a scary thought.


I'm not even sure I should be listening to me.

Oh, yeah, I had one guy that would buy all my cull broodstock every spring and stock this +/- 1 acre pond. Family vacation home kinda thing. Bunch of ratty looking males and a few big pot bellied females. One year, a 16 year old nephew hooks a 8 or 10 lb steelhead strain trout. The kid carried it around for HOURS, so proud of himself.

As I’m listening to the story, I’m having a hard time keeping the “WTF, dude” look off my face. People are WEIRD about big fish.

Sixty-one years ago I snuck into the neighbors farm pond. It was also about an acre. He had stocked a few years before. I knew I hooked a whopper right away because almost immediately it jumped and I could see it was big. I was using 4 lb line at the time so it took a little bit to get it to the shore. I don't know what it weighed but it was 29 in long.

Nana baked it for us.

lol, how many other places have you snuck into?

Otay Lake was a bass hatchery. Maybe it still is. About that same age I snuck in there. I made thirty-two casts with a white feather jig and landed thirty fish about 17"-18". I threw them all back. I was using two-pound test there. Now that I'm remembering...I heard the pickup truck coming so hid behind a bush next to the water. I was all camoed out so most likely nearly invisible to someone not looking for camo. I could hear the guy walking back and forth near his pickup.

There I was no more than three feet from the water. While I hid, maybe five minutes, an adult bass swam by about three feet from shore. It was at least twenty-four to twenty-five inches long. What a rush!

Upper Otay Reservoir was used as a hatchery of sorts for Florida strain largemouths. Fish were captured there and moved into other waters in the San Diego municipal water system

As far as I know, going back to the late 60's/early 70's when I started fishing, Lower Otay Reservoir was open to the public for fishing.





Those are from sandiego.gov website for reservoirs. The links go wonky if I try to post them