Yes Eric the two in the pictures got transferred to the main 3 acre pond.
Ideally I would like for all the LMB to be completely gone from the sediment pond so none spawn in it. But of course that goal likely will go unmet.
If a pair or more were to spawn in the sediment pond I could in a couple years go from one extreme to the other in the main pond. I could go from having not enough LMB to quickly having way too many. All it would take is a strong spawn in that 1/10th acre sediment pond then a big rain event to take a lot of the fingerlings over the overflow into the main pond. That was the risk I took by putting LMB in this pond where before there were none.
So I would like to remove all of them. In a perfect world I would like one to remain to keep the trash fish in check but my world is almost never perfect so that is extremely unlikely to happen.
The ones I have transferred to the main pond are already making a positive effect on the smaller BG. When I feed it is not unusual to see a couple of them attacking the small BG in less than a foot of water right up against shore. Also a couple weeks ago I could throw a minnow trap in and get small BG and GSF from recent spawns. Last couple days I get nothing in the trap. So I think the young LMB plus some SMB recently transferred in are making an impact on the BG population.
In reality I may already be ok on my LMB numbers for next year. If I can get one LMB spawn off next year in the main pond I likely will be able to start managing bass numbers by the following year instead of trying to increase them.
I think I am on the road to turning things around.
From my own personal fishing perspective I would be fine if the LMB never got over about 3#. I'm just not into catching big fish. I do have a few friends that like big bass though so a few large ones to keep them entertained would be ok.
