I built a pond of 1/4 ac or little less 9 yr ago and stocked it, as it was filling, with 25 each of CCF, northern BG, RESF, and LMB. A year later I added 25 more CCF. These were all of the smallest size available. I had planned to eat the fish I raised, but I only ate one. Without any management, other than a daily hand feeding of floating catfish food, this summer I had about a dozen large CCF, two sizes of smaller CCF, indicating that the CCF had successfully spawned at least twice, a pond full of BG, and LMB of various sizes. Each evening when I fed, the BG would line up for their food, the thumb nail size closest to shore (sometimes one or two would flop out onto the bank), and one LMB of perhaps 4 lb or better would shoulder into the middle of them, as if it too wanted the floating food. But as soon as I began throwing the food, the orderly assemblage of fish erupted into a feeding frenzy and in the midst would be several explosions as the big LMB grabbed its meal, and smaller LMB helped themselves as well. The CCF would appear as soon as the food hit the water, and they would cruse around with their mouths open like sharks. The pond reached an equilibrium on its own, and maintained it year after year despite very low water levels during droughts and considerable spilling during floods. No water plants ever appeared other than algae. A year or two after the pond filled a large oak tree fell into it during an ice storm and provided valuable structure and cover. The tree is still there, although it's lost much of its mass and is slowly subsiding into the pond.
