Most of the Southern experts you may read recommendations from live in the Southeast and their experience just doesn't cut it here.
I linked earlier in this thread to a publication from Texas A&M, written by a fisheries specialist extension agent for them, that specifically, very clearly, strongly recommends fertilization for Texas ponds. So I did not give advice that is irrelevant to Texas. To say you personally advise against it, is completely valid; to suggest I gave uninformed or faulty advice is not accurate. A series of cloudy days in a row without sunshine happens in TN just like it does in TX; and, we do get periods some summers in which we go for months with little to no rain, flushing or otherwise. If a pond isn't over-fertilized, as I already noted, it won't result in a fish kill. I almost had a kill once out of ten years. And in that time my bluegill averaged twelve ounces in one pond I was fertilizing, and fourteen ounces in another pond, and neither pond was fed, and they were common northern-strain bluegill, not hybrids or coppernose. I don't care much about carrying capacity; I fertilize simply because it makes my fish far bigger than they would be without it. I personally would rather have huge fish with a small risk of a fish kill under atypical, uncommon circumstances, than much smaller fish with no risk. But that's just me.
