I have been visiting with a neighbor who has an older 6 acre pond with Florida bass and it is low on forage fish. We have talked about Tilipia, building a forage pond, and buying adult CNBG.

I was feeding some fish in a cage on my dock when wondered if a CNBG would spawn in a cage if there were spawning disk in the the cage, and the cage was a 6' circle. If so, the CNBG could be protected from the largest LMB while still producing forage.

Thoughts?

You could make it where the BG would spawn. How would you protect the BG hatchlings/yoy/fry ? It might work but I think there are other more successful methods - forage pond , blocking nets , sup adult BG stocking , increased production (feeding , protection/habitat).

How about surrounding cage with cedar trees?

Forage pond is probably the best solution, but he is a cheap as me:). Tilipia would be great, but when he priced the #s he needed, he changed his mind on them.

We could get a cage built for relatively cheap, if it would work.

Trying to get those fry to stay in those cedars would be like trying to herd cats. My pond is ringed with BG fry - even in places without sufficient cover. BG are prodigious breeders because they are meant to be "food for the world", as I call it. That means they need to be just dumb enough to feed the rest of the fish without being too dumb to get themselves wiped out.

Sounds like stocking adult BG with proper cover would give you a better shot.