George, thanks for the time you spent on that post and the info you've posted prior. I've certainly read a lot of it.

Other than having a grow out pond, we kinda did what you outlined on the first pond.

For this pond, we were trying to see how HSB as the only predator would work, and they are our main focus of the pond (as in, I don't really care if bluegill aren't ideal because HSB don't eat enough since the HSB are feed trained).

My goal for giving them a shot without largemouth in there is that we wanted something different, and depending on what HSB were available when we ladder stock, we aren't forced to get overly large ones to survive predation without LMB in the pond.

The ultimate goal of the pond is have a pond full of 2-4 pound HSB (or larger, but not necessary for our goals) for the kids to catch (it's a big family place).

My worry about seeing the LMB is that we have enough to spawn, and the "back-up" plan of stocking LMB if for some reason things didn't work out may already be a reality if we have a handful of LMB already in there. And if that is the case that we already have enough LMB to spawn, I'd rather go ahead and stock known LMB and just go forward with a typical LMB/BG pond with the HSB as bonuses.