As I said earlier, I think Norm is managing his lake pretty good for the goals that he has established for his lake. My earlier discussion was to generate thought for pondowners who are stocking new ponds so they could be better informed of consequences or possible repercussions of their stocking plan.
I also agree that nonreproducing fish are easier but not necessarily cheaper to manage. And maybe even cheaper in the long term. I advocate it as often as possible when appropriate. However many pondowners do not want to spend much effort of money yearly or even every 2 yrs to replace fish or suppliment populations. Many are primarily interested in catching not managing. It's not a priority for them or money for restocking is limited.
Nonreproducing fish (predators and some panfish) also allow you better control of habitat grazing so there is less chance of overgrazing. Control is a key element in management or population manipulation.
I agree most all stockings and management are artificial in artificially created water bodies, i.e. the term fishery managment. When introduced populations are left to develop naturally or they are allowed to be indiscriminately harvested they usually go out of balance one way or another. In natual undisturbed settings, nature will eventually adjust unbalanced densities. However most people are too impatient to wait for nature to make the adjustments and / or they do not like the way nature does it.
I would not have stocked Norm's lake a whole lot differently other than maybe leaving out one or two problematic taxa. Norm is learning that certain combos do not compete well with a diverse mixed fish community. Some species are more adaptable at surviving with other species competition than others. For example his walleye/perch species are not flourishing. Under different conditions the walleye-perch could be the dominant fish and the others would struggle. His crappie are not doing real well as far as body condition. Ideal forage items or conditions for these fish are not optimum. But then can survive.
I sort of like his philosophy of grouping similar types of fish species together based on feeding behavior / adaptations. I even used his same stocking concepts once in one of my ponds. When my goals chqnged, I wound up draining and restocking. One gets a real education when they drain a pond where lots of various types fish have been stocked into it over the years.
Also in Norms case slow growth of predators can be good. Slow growing, smaller predators have to eat smaller forage items compared to significiently larger bodied fish of the same species. Smaller predators are helping produce larger panfish.
Norm had some background knowledge /education of what he was doing before he started. He mentioned ecology class. Also Norm mentioned that he is COMMITTED, he does population sampling and population thinings adjustments when necessary. Plus he has some money to put toward his "project". He did not just start adding his favorite fish to his lake. Overall I think Norm has done a good pretty good job of stocking appropriate fish species based on his goals which is why I recommended PBoss magazine do an article about his lake. Some others may like this type of catch & release and variety fishery and would like to learn how to be as successful as Norm has been.
