This depends on how long you want to wait before fish become catching size, your stocking goals and your stocking budget.

Obviously, the smaller sized fish are cheaper than larger sizes. When not feeding, growth is depend upon the natural food chain, water temperature and number of fish stocked. Normally, when stocking the smaller sized fish, you should expect it will take 3-4 years to produce keepers, (depending on your definition of keepers) however, by enhancing the natural food chain by feeding commercial fish food, you can significantly decrease this time.

Sizes to Stock? To keep sizes of fish compatible with one another, we recommend stocking 2-4" bluegill, 3-4" hybrid bluegill and 2-3" redear sunfish with 4-6" or 6-8" channel catfish. When stocking a larger sized channel catfish, 8"+, we recommend stocking 4-5" bluegill/hybrid bluegill and 3-4" redear sunfish. During Spring stocking, if you decide to stock all fish at the same time, we suggest stocking additional fathead minnows, 4-5" bluegill, 4-5" redear sunfish (if available), 3-4" largemouth bass and 6-8", 8-10" or 8-12" channel catfish.

After the initial stocking, there are numerous other fish stocking situations that may be used to develop or maintain a recreational sport fishery.

• Restock with at least an 8" or larger channel catfish. Our 8-12" channels are very popular for this purpose, but we also sell larger sizes.

• Restock with at least 4-5" hybrid bluegill, when very large bass are present, stock 5-6" or larger.

Corrective Pond & Lake Stocking

Restoring balance to a fish population requires the partial removal of stunted fish and a corrective stocking of either the predator or the prey species. In impoundments with a stunted bass population restock 4-5" or 5-6" bluegill at 50% of the Missouri Department of Conservation's initial recommended stocking rate for your county. For a stunted bluegill population restock with 8"+ sized largemouth bass at 25% of the Missouri Department of Conservation's initial stocking rate for your county.

Country Fish Farm, LLC can create a package right for your pond or lake fish stocking needs and budget.  For more information on our fish handling equipment, pond aerators, pond fountains or a free estimate on our pond and lake fish stocking call (573) 729-4383 or  E-Mail Us today! 

Thank you for considering Country Fish Farm, LLC for your Missouri aquaculture and fish pond and lake stocking needs!