I'm probably more a naturalist with my pond then most and I experiment letting it become different kinds of ponds over the years. I watched my pond become so thick with Eurasian Milfoil that it was almost impossible to row a boat in it. I ended up putting in 18 grass carp, which really took care of the problem but it took about 4 years. In the end they took out almost all plants, even slightly controlled the cattails. Your GC ratio is about the same as mine, which was 18 GC for my one-acre pond. I like the idea of having some cattails at the entrance of your pond for filter control. The others you will have to spray. I used to have good cattail control when I had muskrats but they left since my dog patrols the pond now.
When I had an abundance of underwater plants I didn't have much FA since they were taking the nutrients from the water. The abundance of water plants kept my water very clear. When I didn't have the abundance of plants because of the GC I then controlled the FA with 20 KOI, 6 Israeli Carp and Channel Catfish for my one acre. My Pond is closed from other water getting in and this worked for me. I had a fish kill but that allow me to start a different kind of pond, so that wasn't all that bad.
I had one winter fish kill and that was because I didn't get down to the pond to remove some snow to allow the sun to start my plants producing oxygen for the fish. So plants for me are oxygenators, fish food, nutrient eaters, structure, FA eliminators and water clarifiers, nature�s way.
