Depth of 12' is enough for smallies. I grew them to 21" in 7'deep 1/3ac. I removed some snow during winters to increase light penetration through the ice cover. Pond had YP, golden shiners and bluntnose as forage fish and crayfish. IMO it would be better if the contractor push out at least 1/4-1/2 of the bottom basin that allowed the depth to be 15'-17' deep. Extra depth will help reduce chance of winter kill. Extra depth will also help improve water quality via DO reserves esp if pond is aerated. One of your aerator diffusers should be operaterd in that deeper basin. Over time the extra depth could easily fill in with muck and soft 'muds' to decrease depth to 13'-14'. IMO I would rather spend some money for extra depth rather than larger size when in northern or central Indiana. Extra depth is cubic yards of dirt from a small area in the basin compared to moving more dirt moved making the pond larger, thus the extra depth in a relatively small area should not cost that much extra.
GS are bait stealers but good forage for SMB, and smaller GS are good for YP if you decide later to add YP. Several HSB (6-16) will co-habitate okay with the smallies. HSB will help deplete the shiners and forage so maybe remove or reduce SMB to allow for HSB predation. A local guy has HSB (50-60/ac & pellet feeding) with GS and the HSB have significantly depleted the GS.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 06/10/12 04:43 PM.
