Thanks for the reply! Subscribing to the magazine was my first step, and it just keeps getting better from there. Research and seeking advice is where I'm at right now. Rather than guessing and hoping, I would prefer to gradually gather the ideas and opinions of the experienced pond people here as the plan takes shape. Since the money won't come as fast as I would wish,I have plenty of time to dream, plan , and prepare. Actually, I love to fish for all the members of the sunfish family as well as perch and even trout. This, I think, will fit in well with developing a complete food chain to support the guys at the top. The small pond may even serve well as a safe breeding area for the prey species needed by the largemouths. I am very interested in the F1 hybrid bass written about in the Feb. issue of Bassmaster magazine. Smallies would be great, as long as they can be kept in balance with the main objective of producing as many good sized largemouths as possible. As you can see, I still have a lot of reading and advice seeking to do before developing the final stocking plan. This all fits in well with another of my future dreams, which is to learn enough about the various aspects of pond design, construction, stocking, and maintaining, to someday help others in my area and build a small semi-retirement business. Of course, I may not become the best expert in each area mentioned, but if I can learn enough to coordinate the process using experts in each field, perhaps I can find some way to work in a business that I love. Every success expert that I have seen or read about says that if you don't absolutely love getting up and going to your job each day, then you aren't successful at it and never will be.
