Mike, dragging the ditches and pot holes is how I got mine started in the pond. In the early spring it was pretty easy to drag up a thousand 1/4" to 1" crays and transport them to the pond. I did it thinking I could feed the res and maybe they would grow to feed the lmb. Today I have an established population in the pond after moving about 2500 of the small crays into the pond in the first two years. I did run into a problem by doing that. The craws will dine on the plants in the pond and its been pretty hard to get the desirable plants going. It might be better to get some good plants going before introducing the craws.
I've considered that QA. As it is, the only grasses I have in the water is some water willow, one clump of a cattail looking plant, some rush and one clump of something that looks kind of like an arrowhead, only it has a single spear type blade on the end of each stalk. Everything else is growing from the shoreline out into the water. Not sure what it is either. But it is creating some decent shading right against the shoreline.
I do have some FA, not a lot, but if they want to eat it, they can have it!!!
