I don't disagree, infact, I agree whole heartedly. BG/LMB is the #1 combination. I'd at least like to consider other options though. I'm planning on heavy harvesting here. Between cannibalism, catfish, maybe trout, and us, 1/2 acre of yellow perch should be no problem.
I'm thinking that Golden shiners would make good forage but they get pretty big. From what I know Yellow perch become mostly piscivorous around 6" and 1-3" minnows like fatheads would get plenty of pressure. The market size for perch is 10-12" so maybe Golden shiners would be a good choice for forage to get perch into that ideal market size. I'll eat smaller fish no problem though. I figure it's either stocking golden shiners or artificial feeding.
I've chatted with Mel Taylor from the Smarfishfarm and he's offered to look at the site. Hopefully it's a small job because I can't afford to take up too much of his time
. Getting a soil sample and a topo map is still on my list of things to do. I don't know if we'll ask our dozer guy to dig the pond yet but with the wet weather it's going to be awhile before it's safe to dig.
The most recent assessment I could make of the pond is it'll be somewhere between 1/2 to 3/4 acre depending on how far we go into the forest. Someone waterwitched the upstream portion of the creek and it has pretty heavy underground current. I can concur with this assessment since we've seen plenty of signs of underground streams; sinkholes, water flowing from underground.
