New 3 acre pond- wanting to stock walleye and bluegill

Im in the design phase of a 3 acre pond in southern IL. Approximately 1 acre of the pond will be 11-12' deep. I had some preliminary drilling performed and encountered shale below 13'. I plan to aerate. I also plan to place pea gravel at 3-4' depth for approximately 1000 sf area for spawning. My dream pond would have bluegill, redear and walleye only. I realize I'll probably have to continue stocking walleye in the future. I'm OK with adding LMB if needed to control bluegill population. I'm looking for stocking suggestions.

Contact your local soil and water conservation district. The office in Marion IL has fish days twice a year. The spring pickup was supposed to be in late March but was postponed due to house arrest by Prickster. The new date is Monday May 4 unless house arrest is extended. Walleye are not on the list but they can still give you some guidance on the mix to stock.

i think pea gravel is too small for the eyes. i would mix 1-3 inch rock . also running a water pump in spring to create a current may help spawning

Talk to Herrman Brothers pond management and do it right the first time. They are in central Ill. but travel the country managing ponds.

I agree with contacting Herman Brothers. That said, I think you can contact your fisheries biologist for you district and get advise also.


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I'm considering stocking HBG and RES with the WE. I realize I'll need to continually stock WE and HBG since there breeding will be limited. I've never heard of RES overpopulating a pond. I wonder if the male HBG and female RES will breed and what sort of outcome to expect (size wise)?

If only stocking essentially non-breeding fish, doesn't give me the results I like. I assume I can easily revert back to a more typical stocking program by stocking LMB and BG. The LMB would over take the walleye as the predator and be used to manage the BG population.

My 60 acre association lake in north Illinois gets walleyes every year. They bite good I don’t think they reproduce. When they get close to 20” inch range they start to look skinny. I would also put yellow perch in for feed. We get fish delivered from Logan hollow hatchery in south Illinois.
put the gills and perch in the first year to give then time to spawn. My lake has too many stunted pass from experience and and an electro fish study. The panfish crappie. Gills and perch are in good shape they either get big or get eaten. We have cats but only big ones they spawn last and the small ones get eaten by bass I never catch small cats
my last neighborhood pond was an acre held gills bass walleye and crappie and cats

Whatever you end up doing, let us know in a couple of years...Just to satisfy my couriosity.