Dave,
the fatheads have to live long enough to produce all those fry you are talking about. I dont think they do. I think the bass are much faster and eat them very fast. In the south I think adding additional forage can be more helpful than harmful, but your forage needs to be stocked into a situation where it has a chance to survive. When starting off with a bass crowded pond I prefer to harvest bass for at least one year and usually for 2-3 years before stocking additional bluegill (or any other forage) Most of my clients dont have tons of money to throw at the pond, meaning they wont spend several thousand dollars for stocking thousands of additional forage fish. And thousands of forage fish are what you need if you stock them into a pond full of hungry 10-12 inch bass. Its far more cost effecive to remove bass before stocking or (in some cases) the forage fish return on their own. The situation changes when the P/R ratio is more balanced but you can still waste money very quickly and only give your bass a fast, expensive snack with additional forage. I dont like throwing thousands of fish around to "help" the food chain. I see it a lot and I think the guy who benefits most is the one selling you the fish. I think your time is more well spent understanding the balance between predator and prey, using feed and fertilizer to increase biomass, and learning to grow fish. I have a few guys that throw money at the pond like its nothing and they have some nice fish. I can take you to more ponds where no forage was added, they have some nice fish too.
pulling a seine and adding addtional fish probably wont hurt, but I'm quite sure if you stopped you would not notice any difference.
