Thank you all for the feedback. The YP and SMB will be pellet trained, which is something that is not easy to find as you know. Because they are so strongly and universally recommended, I'm going through significant extra effort to get them. I figure that if the pond took a year and a half to dig, some extra effort to get the stocking right is insignificant in the scope of things. I've put in a request for 300 YP and 50 SMB and should be getting them in early October.

I'll take your advice on the building an extra large hula hoop of sorts, and pellet feeding in there. I imagine that is to keep the pellets from floating into water too shallow for them to get. Is that correct?

I bought several 36" round plastic kids swimming pools that are 7" deep and will be using those for the SMB spawning habitat using the recommendations that are in Bill's articles on the topic. I figured that the little plastic swimming pools will keep any of the stones from sinking into the bottom. I'll probably put them on plastic pallets as well. I'll post some photos when I have it done.

I also have some FHM spawning habitat to add. I've read some research papers on spawning habitat for Eastern Silvery Minnows. It seems that they don't need anything specific but I'll keep reading on it. I can't get them until the winter and they won't spawn until April/May of next year, so I have some time to continue to figure that out.

Calico crayfish should be available in about a month. Based on the advice above, I'll probably order 240 of them (20 dozen).

The 16 lbs of FHM should be here in about a week. They should have ample opportunity to reproduce before they become snacks for the YP and SMB.

I've been trapping some minnows in nearby waterways, but haven't stocked any of them because they are all GSH and white suckers, neither of which I am interested in. I'm moving my minnow traps to some different bodies of water to see if I can find some species that are more desirable. I'm committed to getting this right.

I haven't seen any geese in the pond before. There are a few mallards, but no significant numbers. I suppose that the wild rice could increase their numbers, but figured it would be worth a try. The idea behind planting it is partly for forage for the waterfowl, and if there was enough, we could harvest some for ourselves.

Thanks again for all of the advice. I'll put some photos up soon.