I remember some of those pictures from a thread you posted quite a while back. I think when you were planning on creating your smaller pond. What a beautiful place.
Here are the pros and cons as I think of them (not necessarily in any logical order)
Just from a fishing standpoint:
Multiple smaller ponds, as you have already witnessed and enjoyed, give you lots more options than one big pond.
BUT......... if your heart is set on multiple 10# trophy LMB, it might be harder to do in small ponds. Although TJ and some others on here might show me to be completely wrong in that assessment. So maybe......... it depends?
If you join your current pond with another, it is going to make any additional stocking more of a challenge. Can't put a bunch or 3" BG stockers in and expect them to survive your current bass population. So additional stocking is going to require large size fish - $$$$ or a place to source them from (like your small pond???) So again........ it depends.
I can't help but believe if you join waters you are going to mess up your current fishing hole at least some for some amount of time. Your current pond is so nice. Do you really want to mess up the fishing in it as the two BOW's join and you struggle to get the new single BOW up to your fishing goals?
If you are into boating or fishing from a boat, multiple BOW's mean moving the boat from one pond to another. Or owning multiple boats. Also pleasure Kayaking is going to be more fun on a big pond than several small ponds. So from a non-fishing recreation point bigger might be better.
Bigger just looks nice. A one acre pond looks great but a 5 acre pond looks greaterer (sp)
I think it all gets back to 1.personal preference and 2. how much money you have to spend.
If you can afford it, leave the two ponds as is, and build a new pond the size you propose to make from adding to the current one. Go for the gold!
In reality, you may find it costs no more to build the size you want compared to adding to the current pond to make the size you want. New construction is always more fun and easier than refurbishing. At least in my experience, and I have renovated 3 ponds and built 3 new ones.
Just my 2 cents.
Edit: one other thing. Location, location, location. If you have some ideal building site and the pond needs to sit just so-so to have the perfect look you want............ you might not have a choice. You might have to add to the current pond. But if it was my money and I could, I would go for an additional completely new pond if possible.
