How Many Fish Per Acre for a New Pond? Start With the Forage
If you've just built a pond, or you're fixing to renovate an old one, the first question is always the same: how many fish per acre do I need? It's a fair question, and it has a workable answer — but the number is figured by surface acres, not by how deep the pond is or how many gallons it holds. A one-acre pond that's twelve feet deep gets stocked about like a one-acre pond that's eight feet deep. Depth matters for winterkill and summer heat, but the stocking math runs off the surface.
The short answer
For a balanced bass-and-bluegill pond with no fish in it yet, the starting ranges most state fisheries folks work from look like this, per surface acre:
Largemouth bass: 50 to 100
Bluegill: 500 to 1,000
Redear sunfish: a portion of that bluegill count, if you want them
Channel catfish: 50 to 100, if you want catfish
Fathead minnows: a few pounds per acre as starter forage
Notice the pattern: the forage fish outnumber the bass about ten to one. That isn't a sales trick — it's how the pond works. Bluegill, redear, and minnows are the groceries. Bass are the ones eating the groceries. Stock bass like you stock bluegill and you'll end up with a pond full of stunted fish and nothing worth catching.
One real example: a new 1-acre pond
Here's the recommended mix our order form builds for a new 1-acre pond, at 2026 price-sheet prices:
Largemouth bass, 2–3": 100 @ $1.50 = $150.00
Coppernose bluegill, 1–3": 1,000 @ $0.75 = $750.00
Redear, 1–3": 400 @ $0.85 = $340.00
Channel catfish, 4–6": 100 @ $0.75 = $75.00
Fathead minnows: 10 lb @ $14.00/lb = $140.00
Triploid grass carp: 10 @ $14.00 = $140.00
Total: $1,595.00
That sits at the heavier end of the ranges above, because it's built as a complete start — forage, panfish, bass, and catfish all in one plan. For a half-acre pond, you'd cut those numbers roughly in half. For two acres, you'd roughly double them. The mix matters more than any single number.
Get the order right: forage first
The other question people ask is whether bass and bluegill can go in at the same time. They can, but they do better when they don't. The standard approach is to put the forage in first — bluegill, redear, and minnows in the fall — give them a season to grow and spawn, then add the bass the following spring into a pond that already has food in it. Young bass dropped into an empty pond are just hungry fish in bare water. Young bass dropped into an established forage base start growing.
An existing pond is a different question
Everything above is for a new or renovated pond with nothing in it. If your pond already has fish, do not order the full new-pond numbers and dump them on top. An existing pond may need more forage, fewer bass, some catfish restocking, or nothing at all — it depends on what's already there and what's out of balance. That's the single most common stocking mistake we see: treating a ten-year-old pond like a brand-new one. If you're not sure what's in your pond, find out before you spend money on fish it may not need.
Your goals move the numbers too. Want fewer, bigger bass? Stock toward the low end on bass and keep the forage heavy. Want lots of action for the grandkids? Stay mid-range and fish the bluegill hard. Want a catfish pond? That's a different plan altogether, and it doesn't need bass numbers at all.
Grass carp are figured separately
Grass carp don't go by total acres — they go by weedy acres. A pond that's one acre with weeds on a quarter of it doesn't need the carp a fully weedy acre needs. Triploid grass carp are $14 each in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, and Mississippi, and $15 each in Texas and Louisiana. A permit is required in Louisiana and Texas only — not in the other four states we serve. If you're in Texas or Louisiana, get the permit handled before your fish come.
Ready to stock?
We serve Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi from Fittstown, Oklahoma. Pond delivery has an $800 minimum; meeting the truck at a scheduled stop has no minimum, so smaller orders work fine that way. Build your order at lakemasterpros.com/order-fish, or call us at (800) 433-2950 and tell us your pond's size, what's already in it, and what you want to catch — we'll help you get the numbers right before a single fish is loaded.
— Bill Kelley, Lake Master Pros, Fittstown, Oklahoma
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