L.W.J.,
If it were me, I would do two, 3 acre ponds. The main reason I would do that is to better manage the ponds, especially as relates to LMB conditioning. With two ponds one can far better manage the fishing pressure on each one. I know from experience, that I can condition just about every LMB to artificials in a 5 acre pond in well less than a month. If you plan to fish exclusively with bait, then that factor probably does not matter.
Regarding the forage and use of threadfin shad and Tilapia...and someone mentioned fatheads, but I would forget about them other than an initial stocking which will disappear quickly in a good Texas LMB pond.
There is a lot of disagreement on threadfins for small waters. I can give you my personal experience and the recommendations of one of the most respected fish pros in Texas. I tried to stock threadfins twice in a 4 acre pond in East Texas. Each time, the predators wiped them out. Each time, 10,000 threadfins were placed in the pond in spring and by the next spring they were completely gone. I asked Bob Waldrop, Tyler Fish Farms, if I should try again. He is the guy who was selected to stock George Bush's ponds in Crawford. He also makes money by stocking threadfins. He told me flat out that he will not stock threadfins in any LMB pond less than 5 acres. His stated beliefs, from years of experience, is that it isn't low temperatures which get to the threadfins in most Texas ponds, it’s the lack of extensive deep water in which to hide. In a small pond in winter, the threadfins bunch up in the deepest water and if that is a relatively small area, then they are completely vulnerable to LMB predation.
In your area with water temps no lower than 70 degrees, you may be able to avoid this problem...or maybe not.
However, just in case you can't, my approach would be to go with CNBG and Tilapia as the primary forage. Together, they generate tremendous forage through-out the year. One thing to note is that Tilapia do not spawn at or below 68 degrees water temp and spawn best at temps above 80 degrees. Hence, you probably shouldn’t expect a lot of spawning activity in winter, but together with BG, I would guess the forage would be more than adequate. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, removal of the large Tilapia, those over three or four pounds, may be advisable based on the research in LMB lakes in Mexico.
There are a couple of folks who occasionally visit this forum, Texas715 and Casca, who have over wintering Tilapia. According to posts that I’ve read from Texas715(Greg) , he has great LMB fishing…hopefully you will also have that and achieve your objectives.
