Turk, fertilizer is a tool that should be used carefully when needed and not before. At one time it was almost a mantra on this site. Meadowlark has a good reason for not using it and I have another one. Rainfall is not a sure thing in my area. It is true that "doping" a pond will increase the carrying capacity. However, if you get hot summers with a lot of evaporation, you can have way too much living biomass for the water. This can cause an oxygen depletion problem with a resulting fish kill. The die off usually starts with the larger fish.
You can start out with a great pond that has 150% (or some #) of the carrying capacity. Then after the summer heat you just might wind up with 75% of the ponds water capacity with the same 150% life in it. Mama Nature always gets even.
