Well Nick, there's more than one way to skin a cat (see thread on "how to skin a cat" if you don't believe me).
While Marty could dink around with the smaller lakes to get additional bass fishing opportunities, it is perfectly all right to manage them strictly for catfish. That, of course, is up to him but he did ask for opinions. (Hey, thanks to us, he's got choices!
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As for waiting a full year to stock predatory fish, that is definitely open to discussion. I certainly wouldn't consider catfish a significant predator, so I will have to respectfully disagree with the idea of waiting a full year to stock them. I would always stock them at the first opportunity. By late spring, the fathead minnows should have spawned, and there should be plenty of forage for any stocked bass. If you wait a full year, somebody might just "help" things along by throwing a half a dozen 14" bass in the pond. I don't need to tell you what they'll do to your expensive 3" long stocker bass when you finally get around to putting them in.
I agree with your ideas regarding the installation of additional habitat, as well as seining the ponds to determine what might be in them.
Anybody else want to weigh in on this to further clarify the situation for Marty?
