Brian
I'm working with 3 ponds...here is a link to my first post. Will give you an idea what I'm working with. It ended up being 4 pages before it petered out so there may be some info in it to help you....
First Post 2006 Pond 1 is .45ac (135 x 148)+/- Pear shaped, bisected diagonally, with approximately 2/3 15ft deep and 1/3 25ft deep at high water. Anticipate it to drop to about 11ft and 21ft(worst case) by fall 2006. Based on the soil cross section.
Pond 2 is .16ac +/- Slight heart shape but pretty much a circle(97 feet across) at the surface but really is a 25ft deep funnel. Same soil conditions so a 3-4 foot drop is also anticipated.
Pond 3 is about .12ac and was not renovated. It's about 8ft deep and drops to 5ft or so in summer.
Pond 1 stocked with 4gal FH Sep06...3gal FH, 300 wild BG, 50 YP Apr07...2gal FH May07...
Pond 2 stocked with 2gal FH Sep06...1gal FH, 50 wild BG, 150 YP Apr07...1gal FH May07...25 YP Sep07. The addt'l 25 YP in Sep07 were due to a small YP kill of 15 floaters during the summer of 07.
Neither pond was stocked with LMB or Golden shiners.....they were there shortly after ponds were renovated. I'm guessing they came from pond 3 via seasonal overflow drainage swale. So I have no idea how many LMB are in there but have been managing them based on visual estimation of 10 to 1 BG vs LMB ratio. It has worked well for the past 3 years.
Pond 1 is managed as a balanced LMB/BG fishery with YP as a bonus fish.
Pond 2 is managed as a YP heavy fishery for personal consumption. I keep a few LMB in the pond to mop up the BG the YP don't get to in this pond.
Pond 3 is really a bonus pond but very shallow where I put extra fish as I cull and am not ready to eat. It did have a complete fish kill this past winter. I mean everything!! Every size of LMB, BG, GSH, frogs..etc. I knew it was overpopulated....no big deal. Re-digging this one and adding aeration is on the list as $$$ allows.
Pond 1 and 2: Aerate at night and hand feed 5 days a week.
All in all I'm having very good sucess with my plans. YP are in the 10-12" range with a sucessful spawn last year. BG are all different sizes. I'm getting LMB in the 18"+ range with a careful culling of the 6-10" sizes. This year the BG are up for a good cull.
This is all thanks to everyone here on Pond Boss. Having smaller ponds as a rookie has also helped!!
That's the long answer to your question, Brian!!
Chuck