CONGRATULATIONS!
Beautiful ponds!
The folks here give GREAT advice and I generally never go against it.
Sorta like your situation, my buddy and I bought our (badly neglected) pond about 2 years ago. We fished it and planned to own it for almost a year before we finally took ownership.
We put in 1,000,000 golden shiners in our 4 acre pond a little over a year ago and I'm still trying to be sure that they have established - I think so but I'm not positive.
One thing I have seen absolute proof of is the shiners have allowed the BG to get re-established. We have lots of different sizes of BG now whereas before the shiners, we had only larger ones (like you described) so, I have seen the proof of this idea.
However, one thing that *seems* to have happened with the introduction of lots of forage is that our catch-rate is way down. Before, we caught lots of bass and they were all underweight. Now, we catch only about 1/4 of the numbers of bass but they all look very fat and healthy. I *think* the catch-rate is down because they aren't starving any more. But, another possibility is that the bass are now smarter.
We can't really effectively fertilize our pond due to environmental contraints, money shortage, and rapid turnover of our water since it's part of a protected stream system. However, we don't really have noticeable issues or concerns. We do get a serious algae and weed bloom this time of the year but it goes away after a few months. I've got some plans to try some remedies for this but no money right now.
ENJOY your ponds! Don't stress over them. It's important to watch them but don't forget that, short of a catastrophic fish kill, you really don't have to manage them overly much. You get better results when you manage them properly and with the advice of the good folks here but, they'll be OK.
