This is a neat topic. I like your plan. The wild card is the Rio Grand Perch. It will be interesting to see what affect they have on the LMB/BG food chain.
Child friendly fishing is one of my top priorities as well but I have chosen a different approach. I am going with a bass heavy pond stocked with large BG. Here are the benefits and negatives of this system (as I see it):
Overall, BG populations will be kept "low" by the LMB. The number of larger BG will be controlled on a put and take basis to provide good BG fishing. Bass will be slightly to significantly overpopulated. LMB growth will be slow but the occasional lunker (5lbs around here) is possible. The intent is to have numerous aggressive fish with some size to them. I have watched my 5 year old daughter fish and standard BG fishing frustrates her. She simply does not have the motor skills to hook smaller gills so she spends more time baiting the hook than fishing. Big BG and LMB tend to hook themselves and are a lot of fun to catch. The downside, as I am sure you are aware, is the potential for hook shy fish. The LMB will be 100% northern strain and there will be no supplemental feeding. I am hoping that since they will be hustling for food they will remain aggressive. Also, being in the north, the bass will be left alone for the 5 winter months each year. If all else fails, we are not above using live bait.
So far the results have been promising. We have not fished often and when we do we usually stop after catching 2 or 3 bass. The bass are currently 10-12" and are average weight. They are extremely easy to catch. My daughter uses a 2" Rapala and catches a bass on every 5th cast. Yesterday she had a bass on her first cast. The bass nailed the lure out of the air before it landed. It appears I will have some YOY bass survive this year. We have just started adding the bluegills so we have not fished for them yet. The BG have displayed spawning behavior but we have not seen any offspring. Given the predator dense conditions, I don't find this surprising.
Annnyyyway, good luck with your project.
