Hi Bruce, a belated welcome to Pond Boss. Good to have another Californian here. DIED (Dave In El Dorado) and I have ponds in El Dorado county. I bought the same books as you and subscribed to Pond Boss magazine (which I highly recommend if you haven't already). It only took about 5 or 6 days for me to get the books.
Be prepared for information overload. The more I read the more I realize how little I know.
Tilapia require a special stocking permit in California that is apparently difficult to get (or so I've been told). So they are probably not an option.
I'm not an expert (actually I'm more like the court jester
) so I'll defer any real answers to the experts here (and there are plenty of real experts here). One word of advice though just between you and me (all others please close your eyes) and that is don't get the experts debating techical fish details or you will be mired in paragraphs of highly technical information that will contain words such as fecundity and pisciviorous. Soon your eyes will roll back in your head, you will make strange gurgling noises, and you will fall out of your chair into a brief four to five minute mini-coma.... Or perhaps that is just me.
Anyway, all kidding aside, you have found a great site with a collection of industry experts that are willing to freely share their expertise with all of us pond meisters (amature and pro alike). ....and they even put up with me.
