I see now that you didn't first produce a crop of BG.
Sometimes I do, and some times I don't. I wanted more forage that particular year to speed things up before winter. Normally, I add 6-7 pounds of FHM to restart a drained, killed, and a refilled pond that I've already made healthy again. When I'm not in a hurry for thousands of CNBG, I add 2 female and 6 males, and let the pond handle all the rest. I also leave primrose in the pond so that any kind of fry gets cover.
The added cost of the forage, initially or later, also has to be looked at pond sizes. A tremendous amount of fish can produce in a smaller pond like mine if it's handled correctly time wise. I also have a 1/2 acre pond, but the cost of loading it with forage is more than I want to spend. You could spend a lot more construction work hours if you wanted a recreation sized pond, or spend less on construction and have less initial cost. Again, having a seine, various vats to hold the fish, and transport ability of the fish, are needed items, but none of those things are required all at once. I started with minnow nets, 5 gallon buckets, and 110 gallon stock tanks and fish tank air bubblers, and slowly replaced those. I was a newb in December of 2011 when I started this and feel comfortable now with having near a 100 sweaty hours in muddy waders.
