I think Fall after the end of growing season is a good time to cull in preparation for the following year. If average RW is not at goal, then the population would have benefitted from additional culling the prior Fall or forage supplementation. What RW a person culls
isn't very important according to energetics. With energetics, a person understands what a known population needs for forage to make growth increments. If the population is known (selected) then one can calculate what quantity of forage was consumed to grow over the past year. One shouldn't expect any more forage than that in the following year. The amount to cull depends entirely on how much one wants to grow them in the subsequent year. If you take 35% of biomass, this will be the maximum growth of the biomass in the subsequent year. Growth in the subsequent year is completely independent of what RW a person culls at. What one doesn't want to do is cull a 22" fish at 90 RW and keep a 20" fish at 110 RW when these two fish are the same age.

It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so - Will Rogers