Thanks Dave. It sounds like we may have similar soil types between East Texas and at least my part of PA. Our akalinity and pH are quite low (here I believe it's because most of the area is covered by deciduous forests dropping tons of leaves (especially oak)), and fertility isn't that hot, so we're at least hoping to help with the pH/alkalinity issues by putting a lot of limestone both in the pond as structure and in the inlet stream.
I've seen firsthand the results of a poor predator/prey mix from the start, which I guess is why I'm laboring over these ideas so much. I obviously know much more about how to maintain the balance in a pond through harvesting nowadays since I've found PB as a resource, but my main worry is getting it unbalanced from the start and putting us against a headwind as far as managing it in the coming years. With my career/business stuff up in the air, I'm not 100% confident that I'll always be around to actively manage it, and though my brother and Dad will be around, with Dad hopefully retiring sometime soon, it'd be nice to set him up with an enjoyable fishery that's reasonably balanced instead of one that's way out of whack and a chore to manage. I think I've read enough cases about correcting an unbalanced pond to know that most situations would be salvageable, so I'm not that worried, but why not take a big swing at having a stellar fishery?
That's why I'm concerned more about broadening the forage base with several species with as diverse diets/habitats/etc. possible to get it as strong and stable as possible, and also questioning some common ideas about predator stocking because I'm leaning towards keeping predator pressure as light as reasonably makes sense at the start. It'll be much easier to add more predators later on if I stocked too predator-light than it'll be to establish a forage base later on if I stocked too predator-heavy.
