Definitely stay away from BG, I got talked into stocking some HBG into our pond. Big mistake. They nip swimmers worse than regular BG, and they reproduce like crazy. We swim in our pond a lot. We kept the banks steep to limit plant growth. It means it’s more difficult to climb out of. 90% of entrance exit is off the ladder on the dock. We have YP and SMB. The combination with golden shiners and RES works great. If I wouldn’t have put in the HBG, we would have the best of both worlds. (Swimming and fishing). And YES, the YP are delicious and very easy to clean. My FHM were cleaned out by year three (as mentioned above). Both the YP and the SMB are working hard on the shiners. I added three more cedar trees last week for more cover, and increased feed times on the TX Hunter feeder. Trying to keep shiner population stable.
There’s nothing better than floating in the pond after mowing for a few hours, on a hot day.