How to get the most food possible out of an acre of pond?

I have a pond about 1 acre that was built and stocked a long time ago. It was stocked with bluegill, sunfish, bass, catfish and a couple grasscarp. Over the years it was majorly neglected.  And fished in a lot. There might be only one grasscarp left, and I do not know if any catfish are left. I do know that there are an awful lot of bluegill, And very few bass. There are many graphs out there of ratios of bass that should be fished out annually and also the number of bluegill you should fish out. Some people even go an extra step and try to identify the sex of the fish they pull out of the water. But my main goal out of this water is to start using it to make as much food as possible. I have read some about goldfish and other types of fish that can get huge, some people even just let their ponds become duck habitats. I am open to ideas, My main goal is to get as much food as is possible with the littlest amount of time put into it.

Carp is believed to grow very fast, but I have one in an aquarium together with a carassius (goldfish) and the carassius seems to grow faster, and appears to be more fat. Maybe the carp is more sensitive to size of the container. Goldfish do get huge, which is why some people release them "into the wild" when they get too big (maybe they outgrow their frying pan?). But I'm not sure if it's considered a fast growth. They also dig, but I noticed that they just like to eat soil every now and then, so when some area is covered with stones and dense plants, and there is one open spot which allows them to dig up some mud, they won't destroy everything.

I just changed my mind to get some Capybaras that maintain the vegetation in and around the pond.
According to a connection in Venezuela the market is increasing, they are delicious, high priced and are easy maintained.

With a lightweight of 45 - 75 edible Kilograms sure one of the major food producers that use the pond...

A caution: goldfish are an invasive species and destructive to the ecosystems in natural waterways. If there's the slightest chance of a 500 year flood in your area, it might be best to consider a different species. My 2c.

If you don’t mind buying feed, water quality will be your limitation.  Look in to aeration, carbon (biochar?) filters, etc.   You might also integrate a hydroponics set up.  Also consider things like prawns and crayfish.

some cattails and wapato/arrowhead could add more food around your edges.

Consider a solar powered water pump/fountain to aerate the water, and maybe a second to create movement, having the intake at one side and the discharge at the opposite side.  The actual water volume would be small but there would be movement.  Unfortunately the ready to use stuff they sell is relatively small but if you had interest you could set up a small solar system with a larger pump and make it more effective and self sustainable.

For hundreds of years farmers stocked their ponds with what is native to the area and nearby ponds or rivers.  Bass, Bluegill, Perch and whatever minnows that are native to the area would do well as long as the water quality is decent.  Most farmers that made ponds didn't do anything special, other than having a place or two to fish from the bank.  

Several years back my GF used to live in a neighborhood that had a large water drainage pond with all the houses built around the pond.  Her boys caught a few Bass from another pond nearby and put them in their pond.  Those few fish multiplied and grew BIG and the pond became a popular fishing spot for the neighborhood.  Her daughter was constantly catching 20" bass that loved eating the frogs and frog shaped lures.
The young lady, the big fish, and the backyard pond.

Joshua, those are interesting chart you posted, but exactly what is a "fertilized" vs "unfertilized" pond - what and how are they suggesting you fertilize it? I know from reading about aquaponics, fish generate a lot of nitrogen out of their "poop" and that it takes a very large numbers of plants to keep the water healthy and oxygenated for the fish to be healthy.

Giving us some approximations on the depth of the pond and the ecosystem you live in would be helpful.

When I read your subject line, I did *not* assume that the only food you were focused on was fish - can I re-focus you a little - how do you turn the pond into a polyculture of fish/plants/etc?

Options to consider:
1. rearrange the edges of the pond to create "chinampas" beds.
2. definitely edible edge plants as Greg Mosser suggested - are you in an area that would grow wild rice or lotus root or edible water lily?
3. there are people who make floating rafts and plant "wicking beds" for annual veggies. Depending on how you do it, you may be able to get fish food out of it as well as people food - let the fish prune roots that stray too low, or add plenty of earthworms and let them escape into the water assuming you're not in an area where earthworms are considered invasive.
4. do you have a surplus of a problem land animal (think rats and squirrel)? I've read of people putting carcasses on a frame above the water to attract flies and the resulting maggots for fish feed. I've read that a lot of the issue with "farmed fish" is that the feed is based on unsustainable resources. Here on permies, we try to do better!

Some pictures of the pond are always nice also.

Jay Angler wrote:Joshua, those are interesting chart you posted, but exactly what is a "fertilized" vs "unfertilized" pond - what and how are they suggesting you fertilize it? I know from reading about aquaponics, fish generate a lot of nitrogen out of their "poop" and that it takes a very large numbers of plants to keep the water healthy and oxygenated for the fish to be healthy.

Giving us some approximations on the depth of the pond and the ecosystem you live in would be helpful.

When I read your subject line, I did *not* assume that the only food you were focused on was fish - can I re-focus you a little - how do you turn the pond into a polyculture of fish/plants/etc?

Options to consider:
1. rearrange the edges of the pond to create "chinampas" beds.
2. definitely edible edge plants as Greg Mosser suggested - are you in an area that would grow wild rice or lotus root or edible water lily?
3. there are people who make floating rafts and plant "wicking beds" for annual veggies. Depending on how you do it, you may be able to get fish food out of it as well as people food - let the fish prune roots that stray too low, or add plenty of earthworms and let them escape into the water assuming you're not in an area where earthworms are considered invasive.
4. do you have a surplus of a problem land animal (think rats and squirrel)? I've read of people putting carcasses on a frame above the water to attract flies and the resulting maggots for fish feed. I've read that a lot of the issue with "farmed fish" is that the feed is based on unsustainable resources. Here on permies, we try to do better!

Some pictures of the pond are always nice also.

So I got these graphs from this online pdf,
https://rhea.tennessee.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/145/2020/07/Managing-Small-Fishing-Ponds-Lakes-in-TN.pdf
You can find them on page 20
when they are referring to fertilizer, I believe they mean fertilizer in a bag.
page 9:

Types of fertilizer
Pond fertilizers are available in granular, liquid and powdered forms and are
usually available at farmers cooperatives, feed stores and general farm supply
stores. Any of these can be used in Tennessee ponds to produce a phytoplankton
bloom. However, liquid and water soluble powder fertilizers are the easiest to
apply, and dissolve more readily in the water thus requiring less time to establish
the bloom. See Table 1 on page 11 for general fertilization rates

the pond is an acre in size, and I believe it has highest depth of a little over 20ft.

I assumed that the best use you could get out of a body of water like that was fish because they utilize all of the space in it. Ducks, Capybara, and even gardens floating here and there cannot use the maximum amount of nutrients in the depths of the pond. Truthfully, the next animals under fish in the food chain would probably be an even better food source. But I know of no way to farm crawdads, dragonflies, and snails from a pond...

That said, "chinampas" beds really interest me! Do you have any materials on how those can be used? In ancient times I think the main thing grown in those were corn, I do not think that would be a good use of space seeing as corn can (and is) grown everywhere. But I imagine it would make very nutritious corn. I have been looking for a wild rice that could grow along the edges. I imagine it would require getting your feet wet to harvest the rice, but I have been looking for seeds (that are not extremely expensive to order from japan) that might work. If anyone knows good rice to get for pond edges I would be really interested. I have heard there are some Hokkaido varieties that can grow in up to 4 ft of water.

You are right in your comment, You can always go to the feed store and chuck fish food to make your fish big and plump, but I am looking for ways to get the most out of the water with as little effort as is possible.

Chinampas are the ancient Aquaponics farms.

The people used the fertile mud that came from a river, caught it in a wider body to reduce the current and laid it basket by basket onto a kind of float.
(so sure too labor intensive when I read you want minimum input and maximum outcome)

The shoals that built up were not deeper than 1 - 1.5 meter and "easy" to reach so a 20 feet lake is out of reach for any root and is no good for a slave anyway. (Aztecs had always enough slaves)
Aquaponics on floating rafts, (Deepwater Aquaponics) on lake is also a not go as the algae will be the first who feast on the nutrients and also decimate the oxygen for you fish.

Crayfish needs to be controlled or you will be the one that creates the next invasion wave as the Louisiana Crayfish does in parts of England.

The Asians fertilize Ponds with pig manure and when they turn green they drop Tilapia or Crayfish in which grow out pretty good in this green water method, but after a few times you will impress you neighbors with a foul smelly and murky water.
The pond needs to be pumped completely out and "burned" which means proper sundried to kill all diseases, anaerobe bacteria and pests that have been building up.
Well and this is again serious work you not want..

There is no such thing as a low maintenance pond with maximum income,

but there is a biotope for all water loving critters and plants living in balance which is pretty much self controlling without making a max income.
And still it will turn into a swamp, then a bog and one day its land...

My capybara idea is build on laziness.
They eat aquatic plants and rough grasses that grow in around the pond (and while decompose creating swamp, bog and land)
Half of their poop (hence the leftovers of these plants) will be carried onto the land and fertilize it randomly and slow down the land building progress.
You do not need to cut grasses, pulling out water plants and easy can make friend with them..

They produce one of the best leathers that stretches only in one direction (think of posh or golf gloves) and quite delicious meats...

Downside:
One Capybara (they are herd animals so you need at least two) consumes daily about 6-7 pound rough grass and its morning poop to start up its digestion system.

Canecutter rats came first in my mind because Thais love rats and Vietnam for example imports every day 8 Metric Tons of Rats every day,
In the Philippines you can buy the Star brand meat in cans. Turn the name around and see the smart marketing idea behind...
But again, just one pair escapes (and rats are smart), the neighboring farmers might come and stomp a bit on your head I reckon.
So you need to hold them in cages and do the grass cutting again by yourself every day...

Might sound a bit sarcastic but I have been there as I created my business plan 8 years ago, had great ideas and after doing my homework I only found out it doesn't work like that. I even skipped the idea of a fishing park because there will be visitors who just carelessly will donate their food packs and beer cans plus their kids will do everything to trample down every shrub and plant.....
....and now, 2022 I grab my plan and execute it.
Creating a little world from Food Jungle over Aquaponics and Black Soldier Fly production for my in Laws plus a bit of recreational water body for my retirement and keep all as bio as I can get...
 

So the purpose of the "fertilizer" is to speed up a "phytoplankton bloom".
From wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytoplankton
"Phytoplankton form the base of marine and freshwater food webs and are key players in the global carbon cycle. They account for about half of global photosynthetic activity and at least half of the oxygen production, despite amounting to only about 1% of the global plant biomass."

The trouble with this article is that they're mostly talking about Ocean phytoplankton, rather than Lake phytoplankton. It mentions that, "Phytoplankton are crucially dependent on minerals. These are primarily macronutrients such as nitrate, phosphate or silicic acid, whose availability is governed by the balance between the so-called biological pump and upwelling of deep, nutrient-rich waters." However it goes on to say that both iron and B Vitamins are needed and areas of the Ocean that is short on either of those results in low levels of phytoplankton.

So is the purpose of the phytoplankton to feed the fish or produce oxygen for the fish or both? Both would certainly be required to maintain a healthy fish population.

More questions:
Is your plan of increasing the fish population to feed yourself, or sell to local customers?
What is the water turnover/source in this pond?

And some homework for you: this is a great little video about chinampas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86gyW0vUmVs
A short thread about wild rice - I think Mike Haasl has a post somewhere about harvesting it from a canoe, but not sure where... I've been told it won't grow on my Island, but I'd love to try anyway and see if they're right or not, but I need the pond first!
https://permies.com/t/164216/Growing-Wild-Rice-Zizania-Palustris
A short thread about water crops - https://permies.com/t/176899/Water-crops

One of the big words in permaculture is "polyculture" - lots of variety so that as Paul Wheaton said (approximately), "the carrots don't have to eat carrot poop". So multiple species of fish is just a start. But to give more "edge" to the pond by adding a variety of plants, which also allow fish eggs and spawn to survive long enough to grow and provide a variety of foods for both humans and fish.

Here is another way to bump.  Do floating gardens.  They have millenia of use.  Here is mine doing tomatoes.  The early one was 2008.  The later one was 2013.  They will also shade an area helping keep water temperatures down.  And they can leach a bit of stuff back into the water for other growth.

C. Letellier wrote:Here is another way to bump.  Do floating gardens.  They have millenia of use.  Here is mine doing tomatoes.  The early one was 2008.  The later one was 2013.  They will also shade an area helping keep water temperatures down.  And they can leach a bit of stuff back into the water for other growth.

Basically that's we were talking about in the recent posts and what the Aztecs did over 1000 years ago (Chinampas).

Great to see the abundance of tomatoes on this small footprint.

I always had in mind that won't work due to other "nay sayer" in other Forums and so I skipped the idea for my lake.
Since I plan to have Capybaras it still won't work for me as they can swim and sure love tomatoes and other veggies.

But I see I am proven wrong and a natural lake/pond still has enough nutrients to feed tomatoes who are high on the list of nitrogen demanding plants.

Sure worth to buy a test kit and measure the amount of nutrients available
I am wondering now if these islands could help prawn farmers to reduce over fertilization in their grow ponds.
Especially in Southeast Asia ponds are after a year a complete biological disaster...

Cheers for the pictures @C.Letellier

See Hes wrote:

I am wondering now if these islands could help prawn farmers to reduce over fertilization in their grow ponds.
Especially in Southeast Asia ponds are after a year a complete biological disaster...

I can't remember where I read about it, but there was a fellow who set up a floating system like C. Letellier posted a picture of, in a highly polluted lake in China and grew flowers for the cut flower market and the improvement in the lake water quality was extremely positive. There's likely a link somewhere within Geoff Lawton's system, as I think he has a video of a small version.

I don't see these floating systems as exactly the same beast as a chinampas. Chinampas are more like making boggy peninsulas to tremendously create more "edge", but they go down to the lake bottom and involve trees and shrubs. The floating systems genuinely float and I see them as being a low soil version of Aquaponics/hydroponics where the lake provides most or all of the nutrients and no pumps are involved unless the water body itself requires a pump for aeration. (And simple aeration pumps require much less power compared to lifting heavy water up many feet to fill hydroponic grow beds.)

I can *totally* see a version of the floating gardens helping both improve the water quality in prawn grow ponds, but if there isn't anything in the water that will pass through plants to hurt humans, it would be a way to diversify and "stack functions" - sale/export of prawns for cash, while providing quality food for your family and community all on the same area.

Did you say wild rice & TN? I grew some wild ricethere. Looks like they are out of stock until fall.

I reckon you need to read a couple of books as well to get this project right.
I have looked for a few but at the moment cant pick a couple of good ones.
Points you need to consider from my own experience;
- surface area limits production
- floating vegetables are possible
- fish types need close consideration bearing in mind that comment about invasive species from Douglas
- vegetation in the water may help
- the whole system needs to be cared for.