I�ve been a member of this board for about 5 months, and over the course of this time I have learned a wealth of information that I previously thought never existed. My dream pond includes stripers/hybrids in the 10+ pound range and the average 5-8 pound LMB. Despite the overwhelming amount of information on this board, I have found it in some cases to be very hard to get a general consensus on a number of topics (especially for my region). That brings us to why I posted this topic: to get an overall understanding of the management required in order to reach my goals.

FORAGE:
There has been a great deal of talking going on about different types of forage: alewives, emerald shiner, golden shiner, gizzard shad, fatheads, threadfins, and even different types of suckers. Out of all of those the only general idea that I�ve seen everyone agree upon is to stock fatheads before the addition of your predatory species. If I recall right I think Bob mentioned in his book something about stocking gizzards after your LMB population had established and there were some fairly large predators.

One of the biggest problems I have is, understanding which species will serve the purpose I�m after and how. While I could easily stock each of these species of forage, would it really be beneficial? Would a good general consensus be to �match the hatch� so to speak with forage? For instance, in lakes near my home alewives and goldens thrive. There are the occasional gizzards you see patrolling the big flats and points, but that�s of course only in clear water. So would these 3 species suit me? Are there any benefits of stocking more?

SUNFISH:
Another topic I stray from is the array of sunfish to choose: bluegill, warmouths, longear, redear, green, coppernose, and redbreast sunfish. For me I automatically know the warmouth and greenies are out and of course the bluegill is in. What about the remaining three? Would my climate suit any of them? I have read where Greg Grimes posted that coppernose had a winter kill in Kentucky, which is just east of me.

AERATION:
My main question about aeration is do I need it? Hopefully my pond will be in the 8-10 acre range with an average depth being around 8ft. Since I already know about weed problems existing in less than 3ft of water, I plan on keeping this depth to a minimum. However, since I am expecting no weed problems, will aeration do any good? I know that it can destratify water, but according to what I�ve read on the boards this can be a very risky thing. Another thing that has come up is to turn it off during some parts of the year. Is the risks involved in my case worth the rewards (whatever they may be)?

SUPPLEMENTARY FEEDING:
This has been a topic that hasn�t had much controversy in. My plan is to feed the bluegills and if the hybrids wanna join in that�s fine by me, but about the bass. I asked Bob not long ago about a forage pond. His thoughts were to stock bluegill and fatheads. But why?

FERTILIZATION:
Fertilization is a huge gap in my limited knowledge about ponds. I understand water tests need to be first done to determine which type of fertilizer will work correctly in order to give you a healthy �bloom�. From what I gather this �bloom� of small aquatic life boosts the very basis of the food chain which works it way up to your main predators, further enhancing their growth. But what if you already have a healthy bloom? And how can you tell if you bloom is sufficient? Also will adding fertilizer increase a risk of algae and other invasive plants of taking over my pond?

Sorry for being so wordy with everything, but I have a lot of questions (mostly due to excitement of imagining that first cast onto �my� own pond). I know in the future I will have to consult a pro like Greg, Bob, and anyone else in the business on this board. But until then I can�t help but ask more questions.

Thanks in advanced for all replies and help.

Chris