Take a look at fishbase info below. They could be gams (cant tell from pic) . Usually gams don't have large broods like that.
In the old portion of my daughters refurbished pond that has old water and fish and in one new portion where I made a cut to let the water in, the ones identified in the thread I linked to above are thick as hair on a hogs back.
The other new portion of the pond the water has not risen to a high enough level to join the old portions of the pond with the gams. I hope we do not have enough runoff of water to join them for another month or so and maybe the BG we recently stocked will get off a spawn before the gams have access to the new portion.
Have put some 5-6" BG in the old parts too, thinking they would make short order of the small minnows, but not so far. Still see tons of them on the surface.
In the seasonal creeks where I usually see them they are like you say, not large broods. But in this old pond they are just thick. I kind of wonder if in this very shallow remaining BOW (maybe 3 or 4' deep) the ice cover didn't kill off what remaining larger fish were there and the gams were given free reign of the pond. Lots of variables.
Don't know what all the gams will do to the BG reproduction when all 3 BOW's join when we get about another foot of water in the pond. Will they wipe out the BG reproduction newly hatched fry, or just be a good food source for the large stocked BG?
