I own a 1 acre pond in South Wisconsin, it is about 12' deep at deepest point and kind of shaped like a lima bean. It is man made about 50 years ago, no inlet or outlet (spring fed). We have owned the place for about 3 years, when we first bought it the pond was lousy with small stunted BG, and a few large BG. Had a lot of foot deep muck as well, over a foot deep in some places. I researched on corrective stocking, and we added some LMB and CC shortly after we bought the place, and then, I started fishing out all the small BG. Last year the fish balance had been restored, I started feeding pellets as well. Then, fish kill this winter, no signs of life, lots of dead CC, LMB and BG. So now is a good time to start aerating, 3 years ago would have been better but I had to chop down the money tree in my back yard to pay for the property in the first place. Now that my new money tree is sprouting, Ted Lea helped me pick a good system that wouldn't make me chop it down again, and now I have 3 diffuser system up and running. Now, I am just wondering where to go from here. Do I stick with the CC/LMB/BG combo? Could I possibly do RBT/CC? Maybe YP/WE? Would love to hear from RBT pond owners and get their thoughts, as I am leaning toward trying that but concerned about summer survival?

Welcome to the forum!

Summer water temps will be a limiting factor in your RBT plans. If water temps get much over 70°F for any length of time, then RBT survival chances are iffy.

Have you thought about
SMB/YP/PS with stocking some RBT in early October?

Thanks esshup! I had not considered the PS, though SMB/YP I have thought about.

You could always do seasonal RBT on a put-and-take basis.

What do you think about HSB?

I was kind of thinking of trying year round RBT, maybe test it out with just a few?

I haven't considered HSB, not sure how they taste, or if they are even available in my area, I haven't seen any available at either of the two stockers near me. Do they do well in the north?