...Sorry not trying to be rude but it seems to me on all of the posts you have made on this thread you are just dismissing my question and just trying to tell me i need to do a better job at managing my pond. With all do respect if you think you have it all figured out and already know everything there is to know and that we can’t get any better and learn new things and tricks than i feel sorry for you bc your life and situation will never get any better even if it could bc you have already made that decision for yourself haha. If you don’t have any experience using this method and you don’t have any links to information on this topic, no problem than this post might just not be for you no hard feelings! You don’t have to take time out of your day to post just move along. If you already know everything why even get on these forums? Lol. Just to be a naysayer? Lolol. I’ve seen lots of ppl complaining about naysayers on here and I know what they are talking about now. Hahaha
AF, this thread was going fine until this last paragraph. Not sure I've ever seen anybody belittle the posters that offered help, while taking a more general strike at the forum members as a whole. It stops here. Period.
So in answer to some of your questions (I hope).
I don't remember any posts about long term crippling of BG, but there are several of us that do short term crippling. And by that I mean, these fish are not expected to get far from where they were thrown in.
I use 2 different methods when crippling BG. If I catch a greenie, I use a cheap pair of orange fiskar sewing scissors, and cut the caudal fin off as close to the body as possible. I also cut one gill, and they're eaten by the LMB instantly. On BG, I use a pair of wire dykes, and cut up into the body at a 45 degree angle from the base of the caudal fin. This creates a lot of movement, but very little propulsion.
I've been crippling CNBG for going on 5 years now, at 3 different pond locations, and I can tell you with almost 100% certainty what is going to happen when you start hand feeding the crippled BG to your LMB in mass. We have a 6-9" slot here, and hand feed 8 to 10 of those fish a day to my LMB. What has repeatedly happened is that the LMB start waiting on a meal if the daily time and location stays the same. This has 2 results. 1, you'll be getting rid of BG you want out of there, and 2, your LMB will get really fat, but they'll quit being predators and become consumers. And by that I mean they'll become almost uncatchable on anything other than live bait. If that's ok with your recreational plans, then crippling and hand feeding is the way to go.
I stick with the slot for several reasons, but primarily I'm targeting the gape size of the LMB I want to feed. I've often seen 5-6# LMB hit a 4" CNBG, and then swim away. Those fish need larger forage to continue the rapid growth you would want, and all a smaller CNBG did was kill their appetite. I really didn't help them any unless the forage fully fit the LMB's gape. My personal experience leads me to believe that larger 5"+ BG would be a better fit for what you want.
If you do this, I would probably change locations and times daily.
I only feed 7-8 LMB a day, so I'm no help on a 1 acre pond having BG culled.
