Been doing a lot of thinking things over & reading everything I can on here & think I've got a "way ahead" mapped out.
FHM & PK shrimp are in now & we'll work on getting the rock & gravel in for spawning habitat over the winter, along with pitching some small cedars in the deep end, along with some "pallet triangles" stuffed with cedar branches.
Come spring, I'll focus on getting the right vegetation started with some corkscrew eel grass, pickerel weed, some dwarf hybrid water lilies & whichever other plants are appropriate. Still researching all that. I'm also seriously looking to get my hands on some red shiners/rainbow dace (RSH?) & see if I can't get some established.
I'm thinking 50 RES & 100 BRES hybrids to kick things off, with my feeding daily all of 'em that'll take to it with the intent of harvesting the hybrids as soon as they're eatin' sized. Also hoping that with the stockers initial small size that the FHM & PKs have a decent window of warm weather to reproduce like while they're still predator free.
Looks like SMB & YP are fall availability around here. I'd like to put in 10-15 SMB & 25-50 YP fall of next year, with the YP numbers being dependent on whether we harvest any of the BRES & how many. My hope is that the YP will replace the BRES as they're fished out, both in the pond & at the table.
As the SMB & YP start getting some size on them, I'd like to introduce crawfish & GSH & let that combo simmer till fall '24. Hoping that by then, most of the BRES will have been harvested & that the SMB & YP will have the numbers & size to manage whatever becomes of 25-50 BCP.
Power will be run to the pond, as much for aeration as for the beer fridge & blender.
Hoping to figure out a way to run a single diffuser on the bottom most of the year & bring it up to 3' or 4' come winter. I think a floating dock will help with that particular endeavor.
Hopefully, I'll be able to "create" a healthy enough ecosystem with the right habitat to create enough sustainable forage to pull this off with regular harvest of BCP & YP. My inner prepper would like for the pond to be self sustaining with no need for human intervention outside of harvesting fish. I am going to feed Optimal & aerate, in order to maximize production & feast on tasty fish, I don't want the pond to be dependent on regular re stocking, whether eatin' fish or baitfish. I mean, I'll restock as necessary & maybe even stock an occasional bonus fish like a couple WAE or HSB & will use every tool at my disposal, but in the off-chance things go sideways & we have to revert to 19th century living (or die trying), I'd like to be able to count on the pond for food production, if at a reduced level.
My apologies for the long winded posts. Brevity's just not one of my strengths, but I do appreciate y'all's input & advice.
ETA- I will do my best to keep accurate records & keep you guys up to date as we go along.
