I'll be watching this closely. My newest pond now has 2-4 inch redear sunfish, 3-4 inch hybrid bluegill, 4-5 inch channel cats, and a bunch of fatheads/rosy reds. This pond is intended as a put-and-take pond, mainly for kids and the elderly. It intentionally has no structure, except for some places for the fatheads to sneak into for a little love and bliss. It currently only has about 6-8 inches of visibility, due to the turbidity of building it (it is about 5 weeks old, and has been at full pool from week 2). I expect it will clear by spring with a 2-4 foot visibility. It has steep sides, so I don't expect a lot of weeds. If I do get some weeds, I'll add a few grass carp.
I'm not yet quite sure what to use as the predator to keep the hybrid bluegill offspring under control. I don't think the channel cats will be enough. I feel that LMB will be just too hard to manage.
I plan to put rainbow and golden trout into the pond for the cool season, and they may be enough to keep the number of offspring real low. I'm tending towards adding a small number of hybrid striped bass. I just don't want to add any largemouth bass. The RES are in there to keep the snail population down. If their offspring get eaten, I can always add more when I add hybrid bluegill each year.
Thanks,
Ken
