SherWood, if you are primarily designing your stocking plans against a goal of providing food for your family, I think that changes some of our conventional wisdom.
For example, over populating of fish may never be an issue for you, and perhaps the 'pressure' on the forage base may be somewhat reduced. Getting the predator fish into 'eating-size' range is now a goal, and as such, what do you think is optimal eating size for LMB and for CC?
Finally, feeding should be a part of the plan, as long as it's available in the future considering the future economic scenarios you are anticipating.
When I had this pond up and running several years ago, it was a snack bar plus a great recreation point for us. I would usually keep some bass in the 12" range and rarely eat catfish since they never appeared to reproduce. I did notice after draining that there were sunken tires and a few tiles that I imagine were for the catfish to spawn however, I never caught a small catfish in that pond. I figured if they were spawning, the fry were being eaten.
It's kind of an odd dynamic I am dealing with, wanting to keep my feet on either side of the fence. I want to be able to assure myself I have the fish I want in that pond but also cover the possibility that everything works out smooth for us in the U.S. such that we at least have several more years of semi-prosperity where in the meanwhile I can once again enjoy my pond in a recreational way. If it's clear to me that I can only do one or the other, than that's how it's got to be I suppose.
Again, thank you for your feedback. I have never stocked my own pond before but I did really enjoy this one and the fish it was producing after we purchased the property. It had catfish, bluegill, bass, a small population of crappie and a small population of green sunfish in comparison to the bluegill. The bluegill were large and numerous and provided the lions share of what we would harvest.
