Thanks for the suggestion on culling less than 12" LMB. By "recovering nicely", I mean that I see fewer fish that look well fed, and I see lots of small fish (plenty of food). I overstocked initially based on the fish suppliers recommendation (had not yet found this site). I am not willing to weigh fish, so I will not ask my neighbor to do what I am unwilling to do. I think I know what a fat fish looks like and trust my neighbor to know the same. Maybe all LMB under 12" and any skinny fish. I am OK with just improving things while maybe not optimizing things.
I would talk to him about it and see if he might want to weigh and keep records. There are some of us that actually enjoy the record keeping, weighing, measuring... It kind of slows the fishing process, and if you have limited BOW, it actually increases the amount of time you can spend at the pond. I actually really enjoy seeing how the fish are doing, ALMOST as much as the catching. So for me it adds to the experience.
