That's about 1/20 acre. Small but not the smallest that I've seen.

The difficulties with a pond that size will be a predator if you go with BG. I would only put 1 LMB in there if you go the Bluegill/LMB route. What you could do is stock one or two LMB at 2"-4" and when they get to 12" harvest them out and start over. You don't want them spawning in the pond at all. If the water will be at a constant depth in the pond, I'd set the shelf at 2' for spawning. Sand/gravel or just straight pea gravel will be great for spawning.

If you are worried about high water temps, stock Tilapia - they love warm water. At a 3:1 slope, (which is about the steepest that you can get sand to stay without sloughing off) the pond would be 6 feet deep for a small area. If the sand can stay in place at a steeper slope and you can get the liner in and in place, then you might be able to go steeper and have a bigger area that is 6' deep.

If you had a good water source, and a place to get rid of excess water, you could dig it just to 4' deep and pump cooler well water into it to drop temps. What is your ground water temp? in the mid to upper 60's? You will have roughly 40,000 gallons of water in that with a 4' max depth.

www.hoosierpondpros.com


http://www.pondboss.com/subscribe.asp?c=4
3/4 to 1 1/4 ac pond LMB, SMB, PS, BG, RES, CC, YP, Bardello BG, (RBT & Blue Tilapia - seasonal).