ewest--this pond will not be your basic farm pond --think of it as "my back yard" pond (house will be about 50 to 75 yards up the hill overlooking it)--i anticipate having a friend or two over from time to time to fish with me but don't plan of stocking their freezers nor mine (i'm from the eat what you kill or catch school" otherwise don't kill it.---i enjoy fly fishing for bream, top water fishing for bass, and some fishing for catfish. so i will harvest some of all and enough to have a couple meals of fish per week off of it and a fish fry once or twice a summer. your pond with limited fertilization and beach sounds like basically what i have in mind--i plan on adding a dock and maybe some sand around it once i figure best location/etc/etc. my thoughts are if i add anymore structure that i have a blown over midsize cedar that i may try and cut the trunk off where i can move it and pull it to the pond, tie a block and put it in about 5 ft water--plus maybe make a stake bed from pvc pipe just driving them in the pond basin. i like the idea of no "hang-ups"---i had sorta thought the porcupines took the place of trees but would be a shame to let that cedar go to waste after it is blown over anyway. i also had read that if you weren't going to "heavy harvest" you didn't always need to fertilize. i'm guessing i will fall in the fertilize "sometimes" category--when you do that on your pond --how, when , and why do you do it? do you make gravel beds for spawning?--i've read a bunch on that too but the ponds i used to fish in the fish spawned without them. greg--see my previous post describing out-flow and existing structure. theo--i will read the gambusia thread--i'm not familar with them but i take it they are good to have for forage. thanks all
