Was curious if anybody has stocked fish for food. Just curious. If so what type and how large of a pond etc do you use.

I used to raise catfish in a 1/4 acre pond with an average depth of 10 feet. I did this for 4 years until I sold the property and moved. I got a lot of information from the Dept of Agriculture on fish farming. They will help you out if you ask. I did everything according to the information they provided. On a pond of that size I was able to stock it with 300 catfish, 125 bass, and 400 additional bream as long as I was feeding them. If you do not want to add additional biomass then the pond will not sustain that many fish. You can also add aerators to help with keeping the pond clear and healthy. It was a lot of fun and did not cost that much to do. I did have a problem with waterbirds, snakes and alligators from time to time, but I think it just added to the fun. The only issue I had was permitting so I could add grass carp to initially clean the pond of excess algae and duckweed and get the water tested for safety. Soooo, first step, contact your Dept of Agriculture.

Cool I'll take a look there. My climate is my main concern I think. (North New Hampshire)

I have a neighbor about 2 miles away with about a 1/4acre pond that's stocked with trout. We're at 9000' so everything freezes in winter and summers are usually in the mid 70's. If your interested I can question him about his setup. I know he feeds them twice a day, I've fished it and had some break me off that were at least 5lbs & 20"+ so he's doing something right.

you can raise catfish in 55 gallon barrels check out this

Yes please ask. After reading more into this there seems to be two general driection one can go with this.(Correct me if i'm wrong). There are some that stock a pond and feed the stock on a regular basis.This seems to support a large population of fish. There are others that start the ecosystem goin but do not feed the stock only allowing them to feed naturally. This provides for a much smaller stgock population. Am I getting tthis righ?t I understand there are alot of variables

That is my understanding also. The only thing I don't know is how he handles winter feeding. When I see him I'll try and get as much info as I can for you. ie size, depth, qty of fish, average size, growth, food used monthly, etc.

When you have to feed, I struggle with the economics. Probably the 1/4 acre pond with several hundred fish is where you start to break even.

One a small pond you with not feed you can stock and grow dozens. Only thing is that if you start will small fish and you have ducks they'll eat them.

I have a creek through the property and can pull some fish from it. There a backwash and sink hone on my property that fills when the neighbor's pond floods. That usually leaves me with several dozen good sized fish in a hole that's maybe 10 yards across and four or five feet deep.

I'll have to look at the fish in 55 gallon drum idea. I could do that...

Max

I found this an interesting idea I had not thought of and asked my man if he knew anything about it. He said they used to have a small pond that they had some fish in and sometimes they would put refuse around it to attract bugs for the fish. But it was fairly self sustainable. It also attracted frogs, mmm frog legs. Thats what I'm talking about
there is no way I am going to store extra food to feed to fish when SHTF. I have enough to buy with feeding my family and not enough room for it all.

We used to have a pond when I was kid but it was off a creek and we were a little more than a mile down stream from a rainbow trout fish hatchery. That was good eatin!

Sorry hummingbird I had to laugh. Everyone I know who live in a warmer climate loves Trout and everyone up here drives 8 hours to catch Catfish, Bass, Crappie, etc to eat. They hate Trout.