My parents have a pond, but did a very poor job stocking it 20 years ago. It 3/4 acre and 18ft at deepest. They really did not know how to handle the fish properly. After about 15 years and a bald eagles nest nearby I couldnt catch or see anything. I would see the occasionaly 5-8inLMB and small BG but thats it.

I went out and stocked it with probably
100 BG in the 3-6inch range
100 BG 1-3inch
endless minnows/shiners
150 YP 2-6in

I put many structures on the bottom for repropduction improvement.

Id love for this to be YP pond for my kids to enjoy someday. What would you recommend?

I think you're going to need a predator to handle the abundance of BG that are going to show up next year.
Maybe some HSB or similar non reproducing species UNLESS there are some LMB left.
Bill Cody is by far the expert in your region, maybe he'll have some input.

Structures on the bottom will not do much for reproduction improvement. Structures on the bottom are mostly larger fish attractors and not refuge areas for small fish. Small fish need dense habitat in shoreline areas. Reproduction improvement of BG & LMB are things that include shallow beach areas with pea gravel or small limestone No. 8's for spawning and nearby dense extensive structure are refuge, lounging, idle time areas. Structures should be in water 2ft to 4 ft deep as refuge areas for small fish.

https://www.bobluskoutdoors.com/news-updates/nows-the-time-to-improve-habitat-2019-11-5168

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=514604#Post514604

To greatly improve the fishery a high protein pellet feeding program should be initiated. Something is eating the endless minnows and shiners - likely a few old larger LMB. Bald eagles are not eating the fish smaller than 4"-5". Bald eagles will also not be eating adult perch because the perch 'stay' deep and eagles harvest fish near the surface. The pond probably has more adult fish than you are able to see or catch.

IMO my experience the YP will not do very well with a strong reproducing BG population. Mainly due to too may BG competing for food. Plus without good predation the BG and YP will overpopulate that will result in food shortages, too many fish, and poor growth. IMO you should at this point be focusing on establishing a good pellet feeding program and proper predation and thinning of small fish numbers.

Thank you very much for the replies.

I did put together 4 homes of stacked black field irrigation tile in about 4 foot of water so hopefully those can give some assistance.

It sounds like possibly putting in some HSB this spring is a very good option so I can control how many big predators there are.

As for the eagles we had seen some decent sized LMB in the 12-18 inch range a few times lying in the yard/field with talon marks in it so I was apprehensive of stocking LMB since the eagles proved he continued taking those. will HSB hang out a tad deeper than the bass? Its unfortunate the the eagles will take fish weekly, but nothing we can do to prevent it as we dont want to disrupt the bald eagles.

Sorry to hijack... Am i crazy for wanting to put a waterfall disguised as a mini creek flowing into my 1/2 acre pond? I want to incread dissolved oxygen levels and maintain cool water temperatures. I want to stock trout for all season enjoyment. Any insight appreciated! Thank you!

That's interesting. I have a pair of eagles, but they rarely take a fish. Heron and cormorants much bigger problem.