Our Pond as a Sustainable Food Source-Growing Catfish 

I am atarting..juat bought my lans w a small pond to start my homestead. Thank you

My Uncle had a sand pit on his farm in Nebraska and as a city boy from Southern California I would spend 2 weeks of our family vacation every year fishing that pond and helping on the farm. That was back in the mid 1960's. As I became an adult, got married, and had a family of my own vacations there were not very often. I am now 63. I am thankful to have had that experience. The 3 biggest fish I have caught in my life came from that small lake. 10 lb. Blue Catfish in 1971, 8 lb. Northern Pike in 1989, and a 16 lb. Big Mouth Buffalo in 2003 that earned me a Nebraska Master Angler award. The Big Mouth Buffalo was reproduced from measurements I took by my Taxidermist and proudly hangs on my office wall and the Blue Catfish was brought back to California in a dry ice container where my dad made a mold in sand and cast a beautiful replica in plaster. I carried that ceramic fish with me 40 years before I finally had my Taxidermist paint it going by an old faded photo I had. They are 2 of my most treasured possessions. Keeps my memories of that magical time alive. Sorry this is so long. I really enjoy your videos.

After having aquariums I learned that it takes A LOT of various vegetation to support the lives of very few fish. It would be wise to stock forage fish that are less aggressive than your classic bluegill and other types of creatures, amphibians, crustaceans, etc... I've always wanted to have my own little, deep pond with a variety of plants and forage fish and creatures where catfish were the apex predator

Love catfish, we raised catfish when I was growing up and I'm living on my home place where I was raised and I'm getting my pond in shape, it's about a quarter acre. I have a tip for freezing your catfish.... place in freezer bags or containers and cover the fish with water, then sprinkle some salt on the top....be sure to get all the air out while sealing. Your fish can stay in the deep freezer for several years, we always set out a container to thaw a couple days in the fridge. I like your video and keep on keeping on.

Interesting and educational, thanks.

thank you this is so helpful might buy a land with very large pond that’s been neglected

Thanks for sharing, Mrs. Neal, particularly the graphic at 4:23 showing feed conversion of fish vs. chickens, pigs and cattle. That was a real eye opener. I looked up rabbits too because I'm experimenting with Rex rabbits right now, and found their feed conversion is about 20% higher than pigs. This is very useful information.

Great planning! Thanks for all the info.

Good information! Good video Janette and Old Guy, Love this!

Great video

Extremely helpful thank u!

Great video! Thank you.

Looks like you have a nice system laid out there. I don't care for catfish myself though, much prefer bass or trout, even bluegills and sunny's. Keep up the great work. 🐟🖒

Another great video 👍 I do eat larger catfish, I soak it in evaporated milk for an hour or so then dump it, bread it up and fry it. Thank you.

4:18: Kitty is ready for a fish meal. 🐱

Awesome video! thank you very much for taking the time to make it. I would like to do this on my much smaller pond in Tennessee, about 1/4 acre in size in and have ONLY catfish in it. Do you think it would be possible to allow the catfish to spawn if there were no other fish in the water to eat there eggs? Im really interested in having it completely self sustaining, if I have to stock it every year then it would kind of defeat the purpose for my particular planning. Seems hard to find any good information on this.

Nice and informative thank you. I think I'm going to modify my pond to keep catfish. At the moment I have only Tilapia so I don't want them to eat them.

Well hey the World is falling apart as we speak great choice

Fishing off your porch for fresh dinner. Yes... Great idea for a good source. Catfish have omega-3s right? 🥪🎣

Stock blue catfish instead of little channels cause they get bigger faster for more meat.

How big is the pond and what is it's water source rain only? thinking of doing a 1 acre pond and diving into food independence from it

Where can one get trained or do short coutse on csrtfish farming in the usa. Thanks

What would you feed them if the shtf type of situation? Pretend feed wasn't available. Do you have some type of backup?

In the process of buying my neighbor's mini farm, there's a small pond (approximately 200ft round), spring fed, never goes dry.... Was interested in stocking it with a variety of species of fish--especially crappie (love crappie)--for the same reason: food supply and entertainment (especially when shtf). Any advice?

Where can I do trainning or short course on cartfish farming

If you only stock catfish, will they reproduce? I just built a pond and am considering what to put in it.

If I get pinned I will post this every where ...

Can you just feed them dog food?

Catfish not quite as tasty as those bluegills.

Not even close to what ingredients are in the higher end dog foods. Wheat, corn, “by products, etc are all fillers. Not good for dogs. Do some research on what are good ingredients before just feeding fish or dogs.

40 dollars + per bag in Mich