I ahve often wondered this my self, Norm. Every one that has ever had a pond has always had bass in it, in some sort of way and could never say what would happen if there were channels as preditors.
From what I read and gather when channels get to a large size of around 8 to 10 lbs. They become almost as good a preditor as bass at around 2 to 4 lb range. I know people will beg to differ on that but from my experiance and from what I read this is what I gather.
Now instead of channels use Blues they are much better at predation than channels. They are really just as good as bass when they get to about 2 lbs. Here again people will sware bass is the beter preditor, but just read other posts on this site and also look at what it takes to catch blues in the wild, also remember blues eat bass!!! Here again also, people rarely ever stock blues so people don't really have the data and knowledge on these wonderfull creatures..
Then Last but not least there is the Appaloosa cat. By far the most aggressive and most predatious fish in the pond the I have asked on several posts how would a crappie Appaloosa lake do as far as balancing goes and I think I stump people because I never get an answer....
In all catfish I think could make a good preditor fish to control panfish populations. They don't reproduce in ponds so there numbers are easily managed. They live longer than most other scaled fish. Also, there mouths are large enough to eat the larger species of pan fish like crappie..
