Corey, since you are new to this �message board stuff�, let me tell you that it can be addictive. There is so much good stuff here it is unbelievable. I suggest you look at the many other message boards for other thoughts that might apply to your lake.
The next suggestion is that you get the books about the fishes of Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma. You can look through them to find species you might be interested in.
Because of the rapid turn over of the water in your lake, I think that the biggest problem you will have is keeping up the forage base in your lake. Also, have you considered feeding your fish?
Do you have enough habitat to support and protect the forage species you have already stocked? Unless you have � to � acre of heavily vegetated shallow water, your small species will all get eaten very quickly. My suggestion is that if it is practical, to make a shallow area 1-3 ft. deep and heavily vegetated. The more shallow area with heavy vegetation you can make the better. How much do you lower the lake level with irrigation?
If you have this heavily vegetated shallow area, then I suggest you also add red shiners, madtoms, orangespotted sunfish, and freshwater shrimp. This shallow area will provide much of your forage. It is unlikely that threadfin shad will live as far north as you are. If you don�t have this type of area, you have to think about what forage species to use. Someone else will have to comment about gizzard shad.
It seems that the walleye, SMB and perch combination would work for you. Here are some other ideas. Channel catfish and rainbow trout are incredibly cheap in the 1 lb. range. You might add trout on a put and take basis. They would have to be big enough to not get eaten. The same is true for catfish.
I hope that Dave Willis reads this and can comment. I�ve never heard of crappie being a problem in northern lakes. From the other postings, I gather that the problem with crappie is that they reproduce before the LMB. That means that all of the LMB fry get eaten and thus the lake becomes unbalanced. The way around this is simple, stock the predators. You can do an initial stocking and then supplement it each year with the 8� bass from the other lake.
There is one more species that I suggest you consider and that is freshwater drum. Many people consider them to be the same as carp but they�re not. They are tremendous game fish. They wouldn�t reproduce in your lake and you would only add 10-25 individuals.
