Well time has finally come to get some fish in my pond and I'm wanting to try something a little different. A little background on the pond and my goals, it is a 3 acre pond, 2 years old, with a deep end about 16ft and average depth around 8ft. No fish have been stocked except fathead minnows. What I want this to be is a place that has consistent action when fishing and can provide fish for eating on a regular basis.
Kartracer, congrats on your new 3 acre pond. Given the size of your pond, I think it would provide all the fish you would want to eat on annual basis under a variety of management plans ... so I don't think you are limited to one or another to achieve both good fishing and harvest.
My dad and I used to fish for HSB in Oklahoma using BG. It amazed me how large a BG a 3 lb HSB would strike (Some much larger than I thought would fit the gape ... > 6"). Even so, the HSB is new arrival and has never filled the role of apex predator in native waters. Were I doing this, I think I would limit the laterally compressed prey to hybrids but I might give more consideration to BG-GSF hybrids which themselves have sufficient gape at 8" to easily consume 1.5" offspring.
Your particular goals do not seem to be concerned with the size of fish provided they are in good quantity and big enough to eat. If this is really true you might give more consideration to using LMB as a predator. The reason I say this is that LMB in combination with BG is a predictable combination. Given sufficient time, LMB will overpopulate in most ponds. Under this scenario, BOWs consistently produce respectable quantities of eating size BG by the end of their (the BG's) second summer and harvestable LMB by the end of their second or third summer. Provided you harvest what the BOW can produce annually, the RWs of both LMB and BG will be good. In a BOW of 3 acres, the potential production would however vastly exceed what you probably want to eat.
