but my other question is will the food chain be stable with small mouth bass, rainbow trout with a forage fish like minnows/shiners
like a mentioned before the bottom will mostly be gravel and sand
Golden shiners can provide a good forage for SMB & RBT, but you should put some structure and cover in for them to hide and spawn. Crawfish would be good for the SMB so adding rocks for cover and rock nests for the SMB to use would help.
If you go into the search feature here you will find plenty of info on structure for the pond and also info on SMB.
Here's some info from EWEST.
Pictures Start below this post. Near the end of the thread is a post on types and nature of structure and how they fit together for fishing. See the underwater videos on fish and structure (dated 25-03-08)on pg 2 by Dwight and Nate .
Here are links to a number of prior threads covering some of the types and methods of adding structure , cover and materials to ponds . This will serve the purpose until we can fix it for purposes of Common Pond Q&A (archives).
I will add a number of specific links below on some of the questions.
general stct. info methods:
Below is a link to the new Habitat Manual from the Southern Division of The American Fisheries Society. It is a great resource for info on and building of cover/stct. I think you will enjoy this and get some ideas including drawings/pics.
http://www.sdafs.org/reservoir/manuals/habitat/Main.htm Also there is a new Aquatic Vegetation Manual linked below
http://www.sdafs.org/reservoir/manuals/aqveg/veghome.htm If you have water depth fluctuations or will fish in fall through spring (as well as summer) then some deep cover is good. I like cover that goes from the bottom at 15ft all the way to or near the surface in a few locations.
Artificial man-made structure.
PVC trees and balls
PVC trees and balls
Other Artificial Structure
Other Artificial Structure
Other Artificial Structure
Pallets as Structure
Xmas trees as Structure
Xmas trees as Structure
Gravel for BG spawning
Rip-rap as Structure
Rock for LMB spawning
Tires as Structure
Sand for Spawning
General Structure and Cover Ideas
Oak Trees
Pond Photos - Structure
Thermoclines and Islands
There are hundreds of threads here on stct. and cover. The above are a few good ones many of which have links to additional material and even better pics.
Here is a link to Bob's archive thread on the subject.
http://www.pondboss.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=22&t=000043_________________________