A couple years ago I had the opportunity to stock a small 1/5 acre pond and contacted Texas A&M for opinions. The pond was only 3 or 4 feet deep at it deepest point. They actually reccomended that I stock only hybrid green sunfish if we were interested in ever having fish to consume. They said that Bluegill would overpopulate the pond within a year and the end result would be many 2-3 inch fish. They also mentioned that green sunfish were extremely drought and heat tolerant and that they are one of the few species that can survive in small ditches in 100+ degree Texas heat. My experience is that Texas A&M views most fish subjects from the harvest aspects. They actually suggest that you stock the pond, grow the fish and catch them all for consumption and then start over again. They suggest this for catfish as well.
I ended up putting every type of perch I could find - 5 different species plus 3 or 4 Warmouths that I caught in an area lake. The fishing was phenomenal for the first 18 months with bluegill the highest number caught but the green sunfish were by far the largest.
The past 2 years have been bad droughts in our area and the pond level went down to about 2 feet deep last summer and I noted a frequent vistor to that pond - a blue heron. Late last summer I did catch some fish...nearly all large green sunfish. I have no idea what is left in that pond now believing that the heron probably consumed many - but will look forward to seeing now that the weather is warming. Based on my limited experience, I think that green sunfish only in this small pond would actaully be a pretty darn good idea, especially for a small pond in climates like Texas.
