Friends call me Rusto please lol. I'm far from a pro at all this. So heres my opinion on the minnows. 500 was just a little snack for them. The little ones need a place to get away from the all the predators. Do you have any plants so the forge fish can thrive also?
I know you're right. Especially after what we saw last season. Besides the minnows, we had an astronomical amount of baby fish around the entire pond. Everywhere you went were hundreds if not thousands of babies. By fall they were wiped out along with a good portion of the bluegills.
All we have for plant growth currently is one small batch of cattails and 2 other small patches of some type of stringy weed plant that grows under the water and comes out about 8 or so inches.
Working on some new structure right now.
