17" YP? Congrats buddy - that is amazing!

I have had the same issue in my trophy male lepomis pond - somehow a female got by me and had reproduction...3 times now. This pond is about .3 acres, and every time I have drained, seined, nuked, and restocked with original fish I hold in a spare cell or cage in main pond. I realize your pond is over 2x the size, but is draining and seining a possibility? You'd need a cell to hold your fish during the 2-3 week process, and you'd need supplemental irrigation to refill the original pond quickly. If you want to do this, I'd wait until Fall, and definitely call me I can help you through the steps.

I realize it's too late for this advice, but I recommend hand sorting anything stocked into the pond - shiners, fatheads, shrimp, etc. Just too easy for a hitchhiker to impact your fishery goals.

If solution 1 is not an option for you, managing your BG population will now be a management priority. I would not stock additional predators and impact your nice balance going right now - rather manage BG populations by seining, angling, trapping, and cast netting. I do this on my main pond which features a very similar fishery as yours but I have the same BG management issue. I've reached a stage where I'm growing some BG to 11" but through heavy pressure am addressing the tendency to overpopulate and stunt. For now, I'm on top of it...but it requires a lot of work to cull 3-6" BG throughout the year. Kinda a chore.

If you cannot apply the management pressure necessary to manage the BG population, MALE LMB would be an option. Males will only grow to 2# so you have a limit to their max potential gape, which prevents your trophy YP from becoming meals. I'd start with 3-4 male LMB, sample your BG population periodically through seining, and see if they're successful. If not, you could supplementally stock another 1 or 2 and repeat the process until you're seeing the results you desire.

Introducing SMB is an option, but their limited gape does impact their effectiveness on managing BG over 3-4" in my personal experience....that's why I suggest the male LMB.

I list these solutions in order of personal preference just FYI.

Ping me anytime I am happy to help - unfortunately I am all too familiar with this management issue.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau

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