Have a quick question we just stocked up the tank on our property with some catfish, bass and perch along with 2 lb's of minnows, how long would you guys think it would take to actually catch the fish, they are all fingerlings... just a quick best case scenario I know it will depend on conditions, food available, ETC...

**i'm posting here cause TFF is blocked on my work computer**

It is kinda like hunting. It all depends on how big you want them to be. If you just want to catch them probably 6 months. If you want them large enough to eat then that takes a little longer.

When we stocked a tank several years ago they told us that bass and catfish can grow up to a pound a year. After about 5 years we were catching bass around 4 lbs. Your 2lbs. of minnows are probably already gone. Our tank was about 1.5 acres x 18' deep and we started with 10lbs. of minnows. In summer I added about 5 lbs. of minnows every month or so. I found that the trick was having enough minnows and blue gill so that they had a good chance to spawn before the bass got them. Keep in mind that I'm no expert but it seemed to work for me.

Yea, I am just wanting to catch them.... it is definitely more for just downtime between hunting seasons and late night thrills not really looking to eat anything at least not soon....

Bend the barbs down on your fish hooks.

Check out www.pondboss.com.

Should he also trim the barbs on the catfish too??

Pond Boss will recommend this until are ready to start culling. Plus when your friend hooks you in the scalp, it is much easier to extract... I know about that.

Probably should have stocked the minnows and any forage fish (perch/bluegill/etc) about 6mo to a year prior to any predator fish. This allows the population of prey fish to grow to where it can handle the predator fish eating some. At this point, it�s too late for that. I would recommend restocking some
Minnows and perch again in the spring once it warms a bit. Get in touch with pondking or some other fishery and see what they recommend.

I personally wouldn't fish for any of them till they are big enough to eat/keep. A catfish probably doesn't take as well to being handled and coming out unscathed as a bass etc. other scaled fish.

Yea we just bought about 60$ worth from tank hollow fisheries in poteet... we figured its about 3 cases of beer so what the he!!... if it holds and we get a chance to catch a few during downtime it will be worth it... will definitely consider restocking during the warmer months if all works out well...

Ha, that's where we bought the fish from for tank on my mom's property. That was the first and last time someone told me that the Hall in Koscisuko was world famous, think he was on the sauce already that day.

I�ve had a little sauce there

I was told when I bought my fingerlings that I could start to harvest after 3 years. This is year 3

I would buy a bag of fish food and chunk a handfull out every time you are out there. I have stocked several ponds. On one pond after a month or so the grandkids wanted to fish so we. bought some small barbless hooks put on a little worm and the grandkids had a blast catching 6-8 inch cats.

2 pounds of minnows sounds awfullly skimpy. Hope it�s not a brand new pond. Without an established forage base all those fish you stocked are gonna starve.

Just bend em down as well

How big is this water hole? It matters. Agree that you needed to stock the forage base prior to predators. I recommend that you shouldn�t stock bass until they can go to sleep with their mouth open and wake up with a full belly.

Great site for all answers for ponds and their management.

Ponds I have had in the past about a lb growth a year, so you will catch bass and perch if you aren't concerned about size. 2lbs of minnows isn't much as mentioned by others. Hopefully you stocked a good type of perch that eats less but produces more young ,like coppernose BG. Just to add, personally I would never add crappie if my ponds where less than 3-5 acres, you didnt mention them but thought I'd throw that out there.

the tank is about 1/2 to 3/4 of an acre, and about 15 feet deep, it's not a new tank... it has had fish in it before.... like i said its nothing serious... the fingerlings won't eat all the frogs and insects that are in there first? i suppose we can buy some more minnows since that seems like what most of you are suggesting.

One thing to consider is small ponds are like small HF ranches. Unless you actively harvest fish out of your pond you can get out of balance pretty quickly and have a large number of stunted bass. Pond Boss is a great site with lots of good information about this topic.

That�s exactly what we are looking to do

It is difficult to successfully add forage fish / bait fish to a pond with an existing population of any amount of even mid size predatory species without a good amount of structure or plant life they can hide/escape to, actual planned release sites.
There are several ways to make structure suitable for release sites, wire cages to native materials. Even then survival rate will be low but a heck of a lot higher than just dumping 20lbs of fathead's in an easy access spot.

If I were you, I'd fish it regularly using various baits & methods to try to get an idea of what is already there, what species, what sizes, guesstimated amounts, set out a minnow trap to see what type & concentration of bait fish you currently have.

With more info and a goal in mind you'll find it easier to go the right direction.

A bag of multi species fish food is a good idea. During winter consumption will be little, spring & summer should give a better picture.

Here are some pics to maybe give an idea of how big it is

Very true. I was once told a pond of a certain size will maintain X amount in pounds of fish. That could be 10 ten pound fish. Or 20 five pound fish.Or 100 one pound fish. Or like I had one time. 200 half pound fish.