I've had virtually no recruitment from my LMB for the last few years so my BG population has gotten too large creating too many small and medium sized BG but few really large ones. If left unchecked I feel like the situation will turn into stunted BG. I've been feeding and harvesting a lot so the BG are staying in relative good body condition but there are still just too many of them.

So starting nearly a year ago last fall the decision was to raise some LMB fingerlings up to the 10-12" size in my sediment pond and transfer them over to the main pond to help with the BG control. If I get the LMB population more in balance it should take care of the BG over population and allow the LMB to start getting some natural recruitments.

I put a hundred 4-6" LMB in the sediment pond last December and thought it was a bust. I had only caught and moved a half dozen fish, figuring the rest had died. Well turns out I just did not know how to catch them. By using various large lures and lately GSH on a circle hook under a bobber have transferred about 30 LMB to this main pond. Most were in the 10-12" range with a couple 9" runts and one fatty 16" (I suspect it ate some of its brothers and sisters). First picture below is of kind of an average one.

In addition have been adding a few SMB from my RES/SMB pond. Caught two 13" ones tonight and transferred. Second picture is of the first one. This makes 7 of these transferred in the 12-13" range. I've also transferred a half dozen in the 6-8" range.

Hopefully all the transfers will do well and get my BG population under control.

Edit: added picture of the LMB fingerlings when stocked December 6, 2017

Attached Images
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Last edited by snrub; 10/06/18 11:26 PM.
John

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