I have read lots of the excellent threads on pond carrying capacity.

For example, this a good one that addresses "Structure and Carrying Capacity".

https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=9167#Post9167

My tenuous conclusion is that sunlight controls both the basis for the food chain AND the generation of oxygen within the BOW.

Therefore, carrying capacity is always a function of the surface acreage of the pond. All of the management you perform to achieve the goals for your pond is ultimately constrained by the surface acres.

I have not been able to find a discussion of how the SIZE of the pond affects the carrying capacity (with all other factors being held constant).

Whenever we read of some guy money-whipping his ponds (because he wants trophy fish right now), we hear about building a beautiful 6-acre pond rather than building six 1-acre ponds!

I intend to build excavated ponds just above the floodplain on our farm in south-central Kansas. I have spent years trying to save enough money, but still have not started a single pond.

My question is basically: How do you get the most pond "carrying capacity" per yard of excavated dirt?

To simplify the problem, is it better to have a 2-acre pond or two 1-acre ponds?

I have generated some numbers purely for the sake of discussion. Assume perfectly square ponds with a uniform depth in the middle of 10 feet. The slope from the shoreline is 3:1 until reaching max depth.

A 2-acre pond would have a shoreline (perimeter) of 1180' and hold 16.2 acre-feet of water.

Two 1-acre ponds would have a total shoreline of 1672' and hold a combined 15.0 acre-feet of water.

For the exact same SURFACE ACREAGE, the two-pond solution has 42% more shoreline and 7% fewer yards of dirt excavated.

My uninformed intuition suggests that after surface acreage, it is the shallow water near the shoreline that is the second most important limiting factor. (All other things being equal.)

I don't hear of the "trophy" guys opting for more numerous smaller ponds. However, the most "productive" guys I read on the forum all seem to generate massive amounts of their target fish by utilizing tiny forage ponds and grow-out ponds to supplement their larger BOWs.

If you had a totally "blank slate" before you excavated your ponds, what would you do? I would love to hear what the experts think on this topic!

Thanks,
FishinRod