Sorry for the delayed response. Rainbow trout and Catfish are on the top of my list for edible fish. I've eaten LMB too and while at 9-12" bass are easy enough to fillet they're nowhere near Catfish for flavor. Trout are expensive so if we do stock them it'll be limited to a couple dozen in the fall as a bonus fish. Catfish get big fast and they're cheap so we might stock a couple dozen but they get predatory once they get bigger. If we do go with Yellow perch then we'd probably skip over stocking CC completely.

The reasoning for going with a more modest size fish like Perch/Crappie is so that less of their forage takes up space. GShad, Tshad are notorious for consuming a large part of the forage base that would otherwise go to sunfish like bluegill or yoy bass. A predator like LMB would eat up larger perch and need a good chunk of the pond capacity for spawners. HSB and Walleye don't maintain populations in ponds so they would need to be restocked. It's not a trophy pond, so we'll be fine with perch.

I'd be fine with trapping and netting out young perch if they get too numerous. I could probably grind them into pet food too. I know even 2" fish are still edible, doesn't mean I'll eat them that small grin.

-Allch Chcar
Living the dream, 21 acres. No pond, yet.