Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Sunfish-Including Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass lmb spawn/fingerling survival

Lmb spawn here starts around mid February and that is just around the corner. Heck, Christmas will be here before we know it. And after years of lmb fishing in this part of the country I have learned the lmb will start moving up in or around the 20th of Feb, give or take. So that's just 90 days from now. I am looking for management plan or at least a direction to take. My pond plans started with Gregg Grimes and his heavy forage stocking and with Todd Overton and his Texas Legacy Florida's. This upcoming spring will be my second spring for these lmb and I am wondering about the spawn and fry survival. Last spring I did a shock after the spawn and I saw no spawn or fry survival. Not sure which it was, no spawn or no survival. There were some lmb sized to 2.8 lbs at the time but they were only a year old. lmb count was at or around 1 to 3 lmb per acre at that time, so we added 85 12" LMB. I have not found any information on lmb fingerling survival in heavy foraged ponds. There are a lot of 6 to 8" or better cnbg in the pond, and not sure on how large the res are. Any thoughts or as always, it depends. I do have some cover in the pond, but no vegetation. Plans are to do a shock survey late spring. Just trying to look ahead

I wish I could reduce LMB recruitment. Any theories as to why yours didn't survive? Temperature or turnover at a critical time?

My thoughts on no survival was due to heavy stocking of cnbg,res and their eating the lmb fry. But maybe the lmb were just to young to spawn at 10 months of age (even with their size and weight). I am not sure the reason I had no spawn or survival last spring. I understand in a trophy lmb pond I want few lmb and lots of groceries for them, but I would still like to get a spawn this year. And was looking for information from Greg Grimes experiences or others about lmb spawns or fry survival in heavy populations of BG and Res. I have not seen any comments from Gregg Grimes on this forum in quite a while. Maybe Bob L will see this and voice his experiences in such things.