Agree with skipping the aeration on this one. My bait pond is only slightly larger than the pond described here, and about 4' max depth - no aeration.
The BG/HBG in there came out from under ~8 weeks of ice cover with no apparent ill effects.
I do feed my bait pond, for the sole reason of growing the fish to appropriate size to use as catfish bait.
I have no intention to do any hook and line fishing in that pond, and will be removing 50-100 fish on a weekend that I'm running lines on the Missouri River.
