Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire stocking a pond

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