vaheelsfan,
What you need to consider though is that in a small pond setting with 100 Walleye per acre as the main predator and 50 LMB per acre we dont care about feeding the small bass. They are forage too. That is a very predator heavy environment that even yellow perch don't stand much of a chance getting established in.
If bass was the main goal than bluegills is an obvious choice for a forage fish that most likely wont need continual stockings. Since walleye is the main predator and the question was asked what about stocking crappies as forage as opposed to continually stocking fathead minnows than what would this pond x have to lose if the crappies didnt spawn successfully for 2-3 years? Than you can keep stocking the fathead minnows and the experiment didnt work for those years.
Golden shiners more than likely will not establish in this predator heavy environment either. It is not easy to establish a forage base in a predator heavy small system. Crappies just may for this instance and with management assistance provide his best shot at achieving his goal of feeding predators in that environment.
This isnt natural balanced management by any means and it goes against common conventional pond stocking wisdom, but I think it can be done.
