Great background on the pond. I would bet through the winter the edges of the Borrow pit will be concentrating big BG. 8" is very good two year growth. You could break 9" next year.
Catching a 2.5 lb LMB is fun for teenagers on a Zebco 33. My second goal is to have some nice sized fillet ready BG.I am trying to determine a slot limit for good eating while allowing my larger BG to spawn ( I would love to have some 1 lb BG).My third goal is to have some LMB in the 3 lb to 5 lb.. okay maybe 6lb range.I know catching a 9 lb LMB would be awesome but I would rather have a higher catch rate.
With your goals I think I would harvest all 5lb LMB I caught. Some will remain to make 6 lbs or larger. 5 lb LMB requires 25 lbs of forage maintenance and harvesting will make space for other and keep the BOW producing gains on remaining fish. After your cull next year though you still may need a cull one more year particularly if you want to bring on new generations of fish that will achieve similar weights. You should calculate that culling plan from your growth next year. I played around with your goals in an excel spreadsheet and came up with an estimate of how limited recruitment might reach your goals on a sustainable basis. The plan involves selecting 10 - 12 LMB females/acre/acre for grow out. Basically you need to be able to identify females which can be done >10". Fin clip 10/acre/year and harvest any unclipped fish > 14". As you cull less than 14" fish try to make a determination of sex and concentrate on culling males. You might consider a clip in a different location to identify released females that might be selected later. If you don't get enough recruitment, purchase 12-14" females to fill the gap. Harvest the 5 lbers to make room for the continuing cycle.
