I for one will be interested in how you think it works out for you. I've got predators in my tiny 1/20th acre forage pond now so just putting in FHM's might not do much good. But what you are doing might just work.
Something you might consider after you get it going is to put a couple of minnow traps in your pond to see if you can capture any of your recruitment minnows. Shallow water, a foot or two deep, is what I have my best luck capturing minnows in a trap. Somewhere in my old forage pond thread I have pictures and a discussion of minnow traps.
In my opinion the Gee's traps are some of the best. As the fish you are trying to capture get a little bigger, a person can enlarge the opening from the standard 1" to 1.5 or so. Be advised though, doing so probably makes it illegal to use in public waters. And captured fish tend to wander back out easier so more frequent content checks are needed.
Edit: Some minnow trap info:
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=521163&page=1About half way down the following page some discussion and pictures of different traps I have used.
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=498329&page=2I have a number of cylindrical bait traps I've made. I should put some in my pond near my dock to see what I may catch. For the minnows, I was thinking of purchasing 1000 of them. (that's what they sell them by in the hatchery nearest to me.) I am guessing that's far too many to put in the breeding cage. I really don't know how many I should put in it. The cage will be 4'x4'x4'. I'm hoping to build it this weekend. If I had a pump and pool set up, I'd put the others in it but I can always dump in the pond what I don't put in the cage. Without the pool though, I won't have any idea how well the cage may be working, and even then, it's likely that the pool cage and pond cage could have different production with different size cages and environment.
I really can't see what harm will come from at least trying it. Sure, having a bunch of tiny newborn minnows freely moving out into the pond may not have much of an effect as far as providing forage but I'm sure something will eat them and at least get some benefit. It won't cost much at all to maintain it after it's started. I can also use the cage for something else so at least building it won't be a waste of money.
I will definitely post progress and results as I come by them.
My idea to start will be to first build the cage as a cube with one or more lids on top. Those who don't I will make a note of it. Once I can obtain some minnows, I will throw them in the cube in the pond. The earliest I can purchase some will be the weekend after next so I probably should see if I can trap some off the dock. I want to put them in the cage and see how much damage they may do to themselves. I bought PVC coated hardware cloth for the mesh. If needed, I can insert rounded corners, but I want to see how the PVC cloth is on them first.
I'll check out those threads you've linked, thanks!
