So I don't need to have a fish farm operation, and I don't "need" to harvest 300 fish a year. It's just that the more fish I can put in here, the more kids can be invited out to go and fish. Mostly from reading other threads there's tons of warnings about being able to consume and harvest the number of fish required to keep a catfish pond in check, and just want to let you guys know that I have the ability to distribute large quantities of food with ease and keeping this pond in check shouldn't be an issue.

One other part that lends itself really well in making sure all the fish are harvested or accurately counted is that during the end of duck hunting season, I'm planning on pumping this pond down to help flood a field. This gives me the opportunity to net out the remaining fish that haven't been caught on rod and reel. So, every year, the pond can be drained down and emptied of fish or at least there will be an accurate counting of what is left (may be fun to leave 2-3 big ones in there). Either way, I realize I will have to monitor what is caught, how much is being fed and do my own calculations on the total fish weight that is in the pond to make sure that when summer comes I'm not exceeding my carrying capacity. What I'm feeling right now is that there might not be a good answer to this question, and I may just have to feel it out. So maybe stock low at first with 50-75 fish, check on the growth rates and the water quality and see what happens in summer?

I feel eventually that my limiting factor on how many fish I can produce in this pond will come down to water quality since I don't have any way of exchanging the water. After diving into threads on fish food it appears that some fish food creates more fish waste and may result in poorer water quality. I know the catfish feed tends to be the cheaper grain base feeds, but is there a feed out there that will produce less fish waste and therefore help maintain my water quality?

By the way, I absolutely love the idea of putting in trout over the winter, my only issue is this may affect my plan of drawing down the pond. The idea being that the pond can be drawn down in winter, knowing that the spring rains will fill it back up. Second issue is that I'm not sure where to buy trout as the closest local fish farm doesn't appear to stock them. My wife and I love eating trout, so plans may be changed around to accommodate them.

jpsdad, so the pond is odd. What it appears to me is they set out to build a 1/4 - 1/3 acre pond. Then when they finished they started to create a berm to divert water into the pond....and then they ran out of money. So the berm they built was way too large if you were just trying to divert water, and it ended up digging out and creating more pond. The bummer is that they didn't finish the berm, so the pond is losing out on a lot of runoff that it should be catching. I'll correct this when I get the equipment out to the site to build my larger tank. So the pond is a circle, with a reverse peninsula that extends out a pretty far ways. That peninsula accounts for a surprising amount of surface area but is only 2-2.5' deep at its max. This area does hold water long enough where the willow trees have grown around it and not in it. I'm hoping this increased surface area will just help provide more natural feeding area for the fish when they are small and gain more weight.

One last question, I was thinking about throwing a lb of fathead minnows in there along with the catfish. Mostly just being optimistic that they will populate and once my other tank is done I can net or trap them and toss them in there. Dumb idea or worth a try? I realized I'm spending more money in diesel to get to the fish farm and back then I am on all the fish so trying to make the most out of this trip.