One thing to keep in the back of your mind when thinking about fish populations is the carrying capacity of the ponds in regards to surface acres and your goals. Granted each pond isn't the same, but without intensive water quality management, a 1 acre pond can only carry so many pounds of fish. That includes the forage fish that will be feeding the predator fish that you want to catch.
The more mouths to feed in a pond, the smaller each mouth is.
Some of that can be mitigated by stocking fish that use different parts of the pond, but it all boils down to water quality issues. (fish waste, available oxygen, etc.)
