We are farther north so I can't really say much about your climate but I can tell you what we did and that it is working very well.

I would recommend covering the bank with 4" medium stone. We used cheap recycled concrete. We placed about 12 feet of this on your 4-1 banks. Stocked with about 200 crayfish and now the pond is full of them. The rock gives the FH a place to spawn and when the weather turns cold a place for the minnows to hide too. A dock with a swim ladder is key for swimming when your shore line is rock.

Making the habitat for the food base is what should be focused on and I would have left ours two years before adding the perch. They really decimated the Fat Head minnows. Common shiners and emerald shiners are doing very well with the caryfish.

Cheers Don.

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7/8th of an acre, Perch only pond, Ontario, Canada.