I have a new dam with spillway 3 1/2 acres. 75% of the dam will average 16-20ft deep. I know that isn't prime habitat but we build at dam grade across a steep sided draw. Their are 3 narrow tail waters 100ft long that will start at 16-18ft deep and will taper out to inches. 400ft along south edge has 10-20ft tall cedar trees (very dense) growing in the bottoms and up the side hills. I am in western South Dakota and average 12-15 inches of rain a year, dam was built this fall and does not have any water in it yet.
I am hoping for some snow run off to start filling dam. As soon as possible this spring I am wanting to put in 5 lbs FHM and a few 5 gallon buckets of crayfish out of some of my other dams. This is what I am thinking for stocking plan, feel free to tear it apart. If adequate water this fall stock with SMB and WE, not for sure if I can source and WE close enough. SMB will probably be sourced from local pod. The following spring YP and GSH. Then play the waiting game and see how the SMB and WE are growing and when I have plenty of 10-12 inch fish put in BCP and BG. BCP and BG would be stocked at low numbers so they don't over populate. This dam wont have any aeration and no pellet feeding. I am sure someone will ask why not put in LMB, well most all stock dams around here are LMB so just looking for something a little different. I don't expect the WE to spawn. Suggestions and stocking rate suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

Welcome Ty to the forum

Me being a southern boy I can’t help you with northern fish.can you provide pictures of your pond set up sounds like it might be hard to fill up your pond unless you get a lot of runoff . The more information you can provide for the pond gurus the better.

I think your SMB will suffer rather quickly with this stocking.
Just my opinion, but I think you'll see a rather quick procession to a stunted BG/BCP fishery. I don't "think" the YP will reproduce with much success and you'll need to restock WEA on an annual basis to slow the BG/BCP takeover as long as possible.
My 2 cents.

the dam will fill it has about 1800 acres of drainage. Will just take some good running water. There is a dam right above it that was washed out and mostly silted in. I had that fixed to work as a silt trap and hopefully have cleaner water make it to the new dam. I am worried about having a stunted panfish population that is why I was wanting to start with FHM & crayfish then stock the predators and slowly introduce the panfish maybe I need to wait 3-4 years after predators to introduce the BCP BG. I don't expect to have a trophy fishery for all species but having some 3-4lb SMB and some eating sized panfish with the occasional WE would be nice.

If you want good SMB, leave the BG and BCP out and be "light" with the WAE stocking.
Maybe Mr. Cody, TJ or one of the others with more experience hands-on with these specific species will be along to comment, maybe have some other insight on this.

Wonder if some sterile HSB might be suitable for stocking. I got some and am very happy with their performance.

well hopefully more people weigh in on this. I have never heard of HSB in this area. It is really tough to get stocker fish around here I don't know of any fish farms in sd and Minnesota is a 4 1/2 hr drive for me.

4-1/2 aint bad.. I traveled 6 hrs for a handful (25) of SMB.
Hybrid striper/white bass (Wiper-HSB) should do very well in most all of SD. I would think there is probably some growers within a couple of hours. I'll bet there are some folks here that can recommend something in your neck of the woods.
I do understand the anxiety! it's hard to hurry up and wait!! :-))

Well snow melt has it half full as of yesterday, a lot more melt water to come. If I knew how to post pictures I would. with this being a new BOW can I put minnows in right away or do I need to wait awhile to get plankton established?

The usual advice around here is to stock minnows as soon as possible but I don't know if water temperature in northern ponds has any affect on them or not.

You will definitely what to put spawning structure in for the FHM's. Otherwise their reproduction will be greatly diminished. I used about 18 pallets for my small 1/4 acre pond and that worked very well. Some use floating boards or styrofoam. I found the pallet stacks more work, but much more pleasing to the eye since they do not show after the water overtakes them.

You will also want to provide ample rock for the crawdads to hide in. Otherwise, they will "move on" or be sitting ducks for the forthcoming game fish. I lined about 20% of my banks with creek rock that ranged from gravel up to football size rocks. I do not know if that will be enough, but it was all my back could handle at the time.

Here is a link to a thread that I put together to describe my efforts concerning structure...

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=458150&page=1

Here is a link that depicts my first year success with HSB (I'm proud of my luck and very grateful to this forum with regards to my HSB)...

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=38025&Number=494998#Post494998

Welcome to the pond club, ty!