mnfish, I will be extremely interested in how your WE with YP experiment goes. I am also in MN and have planned to do the same thing in my next pond. I'm thinking a 1 acre pond, 12 feet deep, stocked initially with FH minnows and then a year later with equal sized WE and YP. My hope however is to get eating sized WE with the perch as a bonus.
BZ- My neighbor has a pond that is a little less than 1/2 acre and has a maximum depth of 6.5 feet. He has had WE in his pond now for 5 seasons. His pond is a dugout and is aerated via a windmill. His pond is in a wetland similar to mine so the water level doesn't fluctuate to much. Belive it or not he has had some recruitment from his WE. If your doing a dug out and your in a wetland type environment I don't believe you would need to spend the extra money on 12'. IMHO, I think 8' would be great plenty.
