Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Managing for Trophy GSF

Conner, if your goal is a "considerable number" of 7" GSF, I'd suggest as much forage as you can and managing more toward a food fish grow-out plan. It might be very difficult to grow GSF to large sizes in large numbers.

Growing large GSF and using LMB to limit GSF survival only the best of the best of the best will mean few GSF in the pond.

As I mentioned earlier, I've never been asked to help manage for large GSF, but the first thing that comes to mind is that a large 7"+ GSF can be eaten pretty easily by a 14-16" LMB because GSF have a much more fusiform body than a large Bluegill. If a predator is used to aggressively control GSF offspring, the predator will have to have a maximum gape smaller than a midsized GSF.