My 2.5 acre lake was down to 10ft of the 17-19ft deep end and the tear-drop [60-70 yds long] at varying depths of 1-2ft [entrance] and 8-9ft near b4 the deep drop-off, was almost all dry w pockets of water leading to deep end. That was this summer b4 filling-up this early winter.

A yr-2 ago, b4 I pumped it out in the major TX Drought of 2010-11 to reshape, it was refilled with massive rains in late fall ..in that recharge and recently the other this fall, small bass/other came in from a pond upstream. I have 200-300 acres of watershed runoff, so it will never go dry, but I cannot prevent what is coming upstream into mine. Therefore, I need a strategy that allows for co-existence. Also, when the pond is completely full and we get a 3-4" rain, my spillway looks like a Colorado Stream in the spring: 20-25 ft wide and 12-20" deep during peak...I deployed an effective fish prevention system so no fish, except fish smaller than 1/4" can escape.

With this set-up, what is a good stocking strategy?

Thank you
Rain

Are you getting any trash fish (e.g. carp) from upstream? Is there any way to take water around your pond during high flow?

No carp for sure, not sure on the mud-cats or if there are small Gam's/other like in the other hot-posts right now...

Since my pond resides in the lower part of two very gentle slopes, I would need Sir Issac Newton to come-up with a water diversion plan. Too much water and too much opposing gravity to change the path of the water...

You may just need to see what you have and develop an appreciation for that. Perhaps adding the right apex predator could help, but I am guessing that the experts here would need to know what you have now to suggest the best one. A ten foot drop, even in a drought, is pretty tough.

"but I cannot prevent what is coming upstream into mine."

I don't know the lay of your land, or how much land you have up hill from the pond to your property line, but there might be a way of diversion.

For example, if you have a fair distance from the pond to the upside property line, you could build a diversion terrace to send the water around side your pond.

Living in an arid area, that is probably not the solution you want, because often times you want the water. But it might be possible to put a large culvert in the diversion terrace that would let normal flow into your pond. If you live on the property and saw a large rain event coming, close off the culvert with a door of sorts to bypass most of the rain runoff around the pond.

This suggestion is not meant to be a solution. Not being an engineer and not knowing your particular situation there is not any way I could come up with a good solution to your problem. I present it only as an "outside the box" thinking that might spur an idea of some possibility you had not thought of.