Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Is Relative Weight alone enough?

Bill,

My 2 cents:

I think you might be looking at this backwards. Your are only going to interact with a small percentage of the fish in your pond unless it is very small and drainable. That said, in my mind, I am " influencing" the population of my fish. If I find an under weight fish it is pulled. I use 105% for fish over 15 inches most of the time, but post spawn, I leave the fish alone for a few weeks allowing them to recover some. The best stay, and the rest are pulled. For fish under 15 inches, they are pulled unless they are rockstar fish. I find that I toss back one in 10-15 small LMB due to their status. In Pondboss magazine a few years back, I read LMB can repopulate/overpopulate a BOW in one season, that is a lot of new mouths to feed. Active management IS the only way I know to maintain close to the middle.

If I doubt myself, I just call Allen and ask how his fish are doing after fixing his BOW with active management.

So in short, "When is doubt, pull it out" seems to be working for me.