I think both of Scott's recommendations are perfect...bear in mind pellet program would be necessary to help provide forage with the lack of a super fecund sunfish species. This will help relieve pressure off your RES, YP, GSH and SMB YOY. Have you considered spotfin shiner instead of golden shiner? Max size still renders adults as primary forage as they're much smaller than max GSH. Travis also advocates some minnow species that are far more adept escaping predation than FHM. Killifish and Topminnow come to mind maybe? That might be a better forage base than the GSH - just my $.02.

I have another potential project: How about a single sex trophy lake?

Male BG, Female YP, SMB, HSB [unless beds made they likely won't reproduce]. This too would need to be on a pellet program, but you could seriously challenge the state record for YP, BG and SMB in this pond. I'm going to try a M BG, F YP, RES pond at my place designed specifically for ice fishing. It's only .15 acres, but could be a lot of fun.


Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau

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