My wife is a director for a non-profit in northern Colorado where they teach everything outdoors to mostly youth and young adults. They have a total of 12 ponds on their property that have not been stocked in a decade or better. A couple of the ponds have some real trophy bass in them however most of the ponds have severely stunted bass and seem to be very overpopulated. There are healthy bluegill and shad populations throughout and one pond has some decent crappie fishing. Most all the ponds have common carp that are simply taking up biomass in my opinion and need to get out.
This year they were awarded a grant to stock the ponds with some fish of choice, and enough money to stock a large population of fish. Given the thriving largemouth populations throughout I feel as if there are no options to try and establish any form of long term new species in these ponds. The naturally reproducing bass will eat and out compete any newly introduced species I feel. Since these grants are use it or lose it they need to find fish this spring to stock whether it be for sport or possibly even to feed larger bass.
I figured I would go on here to see what the Rokslide people would prefer if you had this opportunity to stock a bass pond of your own. Again mostly kids using fly and spin fishing gear to catch these fish for sport and not for keeping.
A few ideas have been to stock tiger musky to help reduce the bass population in a couple ponds are help get some more trophy size largemouth. Trout are always a fun option for the kids to catch but I doubt they last through the hot summer months. Smallmouth and Walleye sound fun to me however they can be a little more difficult for a novice youth angler to catch. These are spring fed ponds so no moving water and average about 15-20 feet deep is all. Open to any ideas you have. Picture is of my son with your average bass out there you can catch by the dozens.
This year they were awarded a grant to stock the ponds with some fish of choice, and enough money to stock a large population of fish. Given the thriving largemouth populations throughout I feel as if there are no options to try and establish any form of long term new species in these ponds. The naturally reproducing bass will eat and out compete any newly introduced species I feel. Since these grants are use it or lose it they need to find fish this spring to stock whether it be for sport or possibly even to feed larger bass.
I figured I would go on here to see what the Rokslide people would prefer if you had this opportunity to stock a bass pond of your own. Again mostly kids using fly and spin fishing gear to catch these fish for sport and not for keeping.
A few ideas have been to stock tiger musky to help reduce the bass population in a couple ponds are help get some more trophy size largemouth. Trout are always a fun option for the kids to catch but I doubt they last through the hot summer months. Smallmouth and Walleye sound fun to me however they can be a little more difficult for a novice youth angler to catch. These are spring fed ponds so no moving water and average about 15-20 feet deep is all. Open to any ideas you have. Picture is of my son with your average bass out there you can catch by the dozens.
