I think others have explored mirror carp , not sure where to point you other than google .

Some of it is going to depend on where you are - there are degrees of cold - and how deep the water is (you may or may not be able to overwinter fish).

The first step stays largely the same. You need to build habitat if you're aiming for a natural pond. Plants will help clear out the mud hole as well. Cattail and duck weed, if they're legal in your area, are nice because they're both human edibles. Wapato may be an option for you, too, if you're not too far north. Cattail and duck weed will both spread, quickly, so you may want to sink some tubs, barrels, or sheet metal as a retaining wall for the cattails. Simple swim noodles tied into a triangle can contain duckweed. A pond store should be able to get you either. To flush out the habitat, find out what aquatic edibles naturally grow in pond systems in your area and go with that. Depending on the size, honest to goodness wild-wild rice, not the black stuff sold as wild rice that's just another Big Ag product now, may be an option.

Emergent grasses and reeds provide habitat above and below. You'll also want to talk to pond stores about submerged vegetation that can keep algae down. Duck weed will cover the surface, which is fine, and helps prevent algae blooms.

You can also surround the ponds with facultative wetland berries and shrubs and trees and you'd be surprised how far up the cattails will work. That keeps rainwater from sluicing over open ground and overloading the ponds with nutrients, creating an algae bloom that then dies all at once, which sucks the oxygen out of the ponds as bacteria go to work.

If you want a legit fish farm, one species, you'll have to feed. That can be duck weed for vegetarians or it can be scraps for carnivores. Another carnivore trick is to hang bags of hunted game animal gut piles, too-gone meat, and composting material. Flies lay eggs and maggots fall into the water. But it's stinky. Otherwise, you'll need to be breeding something or buy pelletized feed, which gets pricey. A true fish farm is going to need the crap pulled out here and there, dredging, but that's good for the garden.

The work and expense is why I suggest just replicating a native system. You can nudge it one way or another so it supports more of the target fish.

A pond store and a local waterway watcher program is going to be a good place to start, but it'll take a while to establish a big system. Think year one for vegetation, then another couple of years to establish the rest of the biological part of the ecosystem. Some amphibians might make it to you on their own, but snails and-or mollusks, cats, and the other fish will need to be purchased. When you get there, try to get a mid size - not quite the biggest you can afford - because your losses are going to be pretty high. You also want to jump on edging plants first, and save the submerged vegetation until after the algae is under control unless you're planting out into relatively clear water. Once vegetation starts establishing, if the ponds are deep enough, you won't see mud stirred up after every rain.

If you have more specific sizes and locations, I can try to help you more.

Try catfish, however they are slower growing. The reason talapia is so popular is because it is a fast growing fish. A few other things you could add are frogs, turtles, crayfish and apple snails.

As long as the pond is 4 feet deep it will not freeze to the bottom. You can add a bubble maker to keep the water moving in the winter. I have seen one person use a windmill to power a rotater to keep the water moving. Sorry I did not pay attention to the hook up.

http://www.ironmanwindmill.com/how-windmills-work.htm

Great info mrs.prep! Thanks. I''ll likely be doing that too in future.... only i have beaver to consider. Not sure how to solve that.
Years ago, a buddy and i built a windmill from scratch, when we were sure we were going to acquire a 300 acre farm...with 2 really large ponds ...which we wanted to aerate for the fish and health of the pond. Deal fell thru. after we built it.
We made the blades and everything, including mounting a 2-piston air compressor pump up there at 24' , behind the vanes,shaft-pulley driving a belt to the compressor, and ran a hose from it into the pond....with a seriously perforated 8' section of poly as an air-bubbler at the end.
It worked fairly well until a rare mini tornado in the region was too much for it, and a vane bent and hit the pole.
So,meanwhile, i'm leaning towards a vertical axis turbine for this purpose, and another for hydro generation.
They are more inherently more stable, as the wind can come from any direction/speed to drive the vanes, without them having to tilt/accommodate the abrupt shifts.

I have a friend who has a very large pond and his mom talked him into putting her fountain goldfish in there as she was sick of caring for them. They have now multiplied copiously and taken over the pond and he regrets letting them go. I think he had put some trout in there as well, but I didn't dare ask because the goldfish are such a sore spot for him that I didn't want to bring up the conversation. So be careful what you put in your pond.

After hearing about the goldfish overabundance, I tried to research whether they are edible. I think the answer is yes, that they are closely related to carp and are edible. I don't know why, but the thought of eating them is revolting to me.

Great info mrs.prep! Thanks. I''ll likely be doing that too in future.... only i have beaver to consider. Not sure how to solve that.
Years ago, a buddy and i built a windmill from scratch, when we were sure we were going to acquire a 300 acre farm...with 2 really large ponds ...which we wanted to aerate for the fish and health of the pond. Deal fell thru. after we built it.
We made the blades and everything, including mounting a 2-piston air compressor pump up there at 24' , behind the vanes,shaft-pulley driving a belt to the compressor, and ran a hose from it into the pond....with a seriously perforated 8' section of poly as an air-bubbler at the end.
It worked fairly well until a rare mini tornado in the region was too much for it, and a vane bent and hit the pole.
So,meanwhile, i'm leaning towards a vertical axis turbine for this purpose, and another for hydro generation.
They are more inherently more stable, as the wind can come from any direction/speed to drive the vanes, without them having to tilt/accommodate the abrupt shifts.

wow sounds like it was a great practice run....how about a short one about 6 feet tall? It would still move the water enough to keep it from going stagnate.

As for the beaver, I may be wrong on this as I am trying to post this from memory. I believe that due to having a beaver in the pond it will effect the quality of the "food" from the pond, including any plants. I can't remember what grass it is, (I will see if I can find out) that is native to Ontario that acts as a filter for toxins in the water. Often it is used when there are cattle/sheep/goats in the area where the risk of their poop ends up in the water source. The same grass may reduce the worry of beaver.

Beaver is good eating and the skins are nice

Beaver is good eating and the skins are nice

x2 that - slow cook with a bunch of green or wild onion, some rosemary, and pin cherries or any other tart-sweet inside, rolling it every hour or so. Or stick a can of beer with the top cut off inside, like with chicken on the grill. Mmmmm-mmmm.

I have heard koi and goldfish, although edible, are not palatable. I might go that route for dog food and cat food, but they aren't so much faster than other non-tilapia fish that I would ever consider releasing them somewhere outside of a fish tank. All you need is a lucky lady fish with fertilized eggs to get grabbed and then dropped by a hawk, and there's another non-native competing with the poor wild critters in another pond. North American freshwater mollusks and crayfish, especially, don't need any other voracious eaters in their worlds.

Beaver will and won't affect the "quality" of a pond or stream. They make the poo-poo, which means the water has to be treated, but no more so than fish would. Beaver also tend to go after specific types of vegetation. Your picnic table and fruit trees may need a beaver and porcupine guard, but wild aquatic natives should be fine. In the wild, beaver tend to be a giant indicator species. As a species higher up on the food chain with few predators, they're a sign that a particular place is a good one for dropping a line or foraging. It speaks to a mature, stable system. Sometimes they're thriving in waters that are too algae choked for plants and fish, but usually enough woods to support beaver means there's enough woods to slow down incoming runoff.

If a pond is big enough in both width and depth, it doesn't really need any extra aeration in winter. Below the four-foot depth in most of the temperate regions (a little depper in true arctic conditions), the oxygen condenses and as fish slow down, so does their oxygen consumption. As a pond farmer, you can maximize that with strategic heavy fish harvest shortly before frosts, leaving breeders and small feeders but an overabundance of emergent and submerged plants. Bacteria moves slower in cold weather, too, and the water molecules are tighter together, so less oxygen is escaping at the same time less is being used, even with plant die-off later in the season. Smaller pond systems may need help, but adding depth can make a big difference there.

If you're a handy sort, you can make a watermill or use a lamp run off a battery bank powered by a SSG Bedini to keep part of the ice open during cold-cold weather. The ice is part of what forms a natural insulating layer, though, in native systems, so there's a balance between when circulation is really necessary.

The SSG Bedini is something to consider in a connected shed for a greenhouse aquaponics system, a small aquarium aquaponics system, as well as in a little house near the pond for that system. No sun or wind required.

Thanks, every one. I have sketchy internet again. I tried google with not much pertinent local info. I was hoping someone had a site that explained it all but no go.

Probably saying fish "Farm" was too much. Just fish that live in it. Talapia will not survive here. Ice freeze can be 4-5 feet so the fish would have to hibernate in the couple feet left.

I can easily transplant some local cat tails from a local pond and meant to do some last year...but there were a lot of last years that will have to be this years...maybe the next year

Ild be happy with carp for their sheer tenacity...but I don't know the legal...and I wouldn't want to be responsible for an escape that destroys the local ecology.

Some...Most prepping has easy answers...this doesn't seem to be one of them

If you're just looking for a private fishing hole, contact your local fish and game guys or the reservoir and pond angeler spot to find out what they stock (once the plants are in). Remember not to count the freeze depth (4-5 feet from what you said) and thus plan stocking accordingly.

Perch, cats, any of the sunfish/panfish should have native and legal options in your area. Smallmouth bass are tastiest but any of the breams and other panfish/sunfish are okay, although sometimes black crappie are too much to handle. Minnows, chubs, fatheads and shiners/grubbers should go in as well, not just the sport fish, to build the system. You may be cool enough but not too cold for trout (trout also like oxygen, so that's a factor for them). Depending on the area, you might even be able to do fingerling stickleback and sturgeon that you snag out at 2-3 feet.

The game management agencies will be able to tell you what bloodlines and species they use, so you'll have a good starting point for breeders to contact knowing the species are thriving.
They can also help you tabulate the winter survival area for your pond(s), which tells you how much fish biomass you should stock for grow outs to a sustainable population.

Make sure you end up with some submerged vegetation in there as egg and nursery grounds and so the minnows don't all get munched too fast. They're the plants that are producing the underwater oxygen. Just like aboveground, different zones have different underwater plants that survive and thrive and fill niches.

If you want to PM me, and can try to help you in more detail.

Thanks. I want professional advice. I just don't want inspectors on my property. I also don't want to screw up for my neighbours.( like why their chickens got eaten by mutant piranhas)
Angry neighbours are bad, M Kay. Fish an Wildlife officers are worse M Kay

Around here, my local wildlife person gave me some great advise. She even gave me a permit to have "wild" fish. It turns out at least in Ontario that you aren't suppose to stock wild fish. I was looking at pumpkin sunfish.