A client wanted a trophy LMB pond. Goal is a 10% LMB here in Indiana.
Going against "rules of thumb" for northern ponds, we stocked it with forage last year. I sourced some feed trained LMB this year, and sexed them to hopefully ensure only females were stocked. There are no other LMB in the pond.
Part of the pond is fenced off for a kids fishing pond. It was easy to do because of some features they have. That is stocked with RES, HBG, YP and HSB. Feeding Optimal in a Texas Hunter feeder since stocking them last year, the 1"-3" HBG and RES are around 7"-8", the 3"-4" and 6"-8" YP that were stocked are being caught now at 12" and the 4"-6" HSB are around 12".
There is another feeder feeding the same food in the main part of the pond.
Each LMB that was stocked, was tagged with a numbered floy tag, and each LMB was weighed and measured before stocking.
They will be carefully watched. I can't let too much out of the bag, I need to get their permission, and it will be a multi month article in Pond Boss Magazine.