Hello, I had a stand pipe fail and a full pond kill last summer on a 3/4 acre pond in Northern Virginia in the blue ridge mountains. The pond is 14 feet deep at max and about 1/3 of pond is 8-10 fee and average depth is ~6 feet overall. It is spring fed and also has a ~40 acre drainage that feeds a small creek into the pond. A new outlet pipe has been installed and pond is refilled. My goal for the pond is to produce big panfish for my sons and I. There are steep sides primarily dropping to 4 or 5 feet within a couple feet of shore and a ledge through middle of pond dropping down to 10 to 14 feet. There is limited cover although one end is shallow near shore and has a decent amount of plant life and is a good minnow "nursery" from what I can tell. I do not intend to feed and want to boost natural food sources. From photos you can see a very natural area and there is plenty of amphibian and insect population already and I am considering adding crayfish once plants re-estabilish.
Last week I stocked 400 mixed BG and RES minnows in the 1-2 inch range and also 100 YP minnows about 2" long. My current plan is to stock in the spring of 2020 FHM and then a couple weeks later 50 LMB. Longer term I would love to have a sustaining population of all three sunfish but I get it is a small pond to accomplish that. I would not harvest LMB except to control the population and would allow a high density of smaller LMB to keep the BG and YP in check. I get that I may not have a sustaining population of YP long term and can live with only LMB, BG, and SC.
Any feedback is greatly appreciated. I am willing to be patient and want to do this right and its my first rodeo!
Attachments: First photo is from last spring before pond drained down and there was a full kill. Second photo is last week after pond has refilled. Water is muddy as contractor mucked out pond as well as installing new outlet pipe.
