Welcome to the forum tommy!

First off, many of the regulars have or are shortly leaving for the somewhat annual Pond Boss conference. So you may not get as many responses as normal. However, all should be back by the beginning of next week...

If you sole goal is huge catfish, I would definitely establish a feeding plan. You'd be surprised at how large catfish can grow on mostly pellets. Plus, pellets get those smaller catfish an excellent jump start.

From my calculations, your pond is about 1.25 acres. Certainly large enough to grow some nice sized catfish. The inability to aerate the pond will limit the poundage of fish you can have but you still can have a good number of fish.

If you're really want to grow huge catfish, I would definitely go with blue catfish or at a minimum their hybrid cross with channel catfish. The size potential for blue cats compared to channel cats is huge. I have no dealt with hybrid catfish before so I cannot say what their maximum size is, but I am not sure I see an advantage over them compared to blue cats for what you are trying to do. Perhaps others with some experience with them will have a different opinion.

What I can say is blue cats are glutonous eaters, especially when in the larger 15-20 pound plus range. As far as a stocking plan, the biggest question is are you planning on this pond being a catch and release fishery or will you be eating some of the catfish you catch. If eating fish, you can stock more, if not you should stock less.

If not keeping fish to eat, I would stock 25 blue cats. Add more for the number of fish you plan to keep if you are going to keep some to eat. I would stock 25 every year.

First I would stock golden shiners. I would stock 12 pounds when you stock your fingerling catfish. With only 25 or so blue cats, they should hold their numbers well for the first 3 to 4 years. It is important you keep a pellet feeding program going during this time period as well. By the 5th year, you should have some catfish in the 15 pound range at this point I would stock gizzard shad. They will then be the backbone of the forage for your larger catfish and will allow them to attain some huge sizes. The large sized catfish will help keep the gizzard shad from getting too out of control.

I recommend such low stocking numbers for the blue cats because you want huge fish... By huge catfish, I define them at 30-50 pound plus. Unfortunately, a 1.25 acre pond can only support a finite number of catfish that large, so stocking anymore than 25 fish unless they are going to be eaten is not needed and will just lead to issues later on, particularly without aeration.

This post is just my opinion. I am sure others may have their own opinions and they may very well be better than mine. Good luck with your pond and I hope to see some 30 pound plus fish in a few years!