Remember 1/4 ac is not a lot of water (area) to grow very many fish for an annual harvest. The amount of fish biomass the pond will grow naturally without food inputs will depend on the natural fertility of the soil conditions where the pond is located. The fertility and alkalinity of the soil of the pond will determine the pond's natural fertility and thus the resulting carrying capacity which dictates how many pounds of fish the pond will be able to raise each year. This has a direct effect on how many fish can be safely harvested each year and still maintain a good fishery community balance.
For more background information about carrying capacity see the topic in the link to the Archives:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92440#Post92440For an example of soil types and carrying capacity and generalized stocking rates see page 11 of the booklet Management of Small Lakes and Ponds in Illinois.
http://rockislandswcd.org/uploads/ManagementofSmallLakesandPondsinIllinois.pdfIn summary and in general a pond with alkalinity of 100ppm+ can grow per acre LMB 100 lb and BG 400 lb/ac,
Alk=50 to 100ppm then LMB 50 lb LMB and BG 200 lb/ac
Alk less than 50ppm then LMB 25 lb and BG 75 lb/ac.
From my experiences, these TOTAL fish weights are in reality usually a little or up to 1/2 less than the amounts reported in the book. Book amounts are IMO ideal conditions. Rarely are ponds ideal conditions without some human "adjustment". I find that the nutrients are often bound up in the macrophytes (weeds&FA) and clear water, or the pond is turbid with reduced plankton and in both cases the pond is not naturally composed of good productive plankton blooms which result in high fish biomass. Good natural plankton blooms result in the optimum fish biomasses referenced in the book/s.
Once we get a stable standing crop - carrying capacity of fish then a 20-25% harvest of each group of fish species is allowable. So "in theory" a 0.25 ac pond in low natural fertility (40ppm akalinity), 1.5-2.5 lbs of bass and 4-5 lbs of BG could be harvested each year and still have an acceptable balance of LMB-BG. More fish could be harvested if alkalinity was higher. In my experience this amount of harvest is a little on the high side for maintaining a good balanced quality fishery. The bass harvested would probably be in the 8"-12" range and the BG would be in the 5"-7" range.
