Not very eventful recently, but this is overdue for an update.

I believe we're committed to this experiment of an (almost) panfish-only pond. We have a couple remaining LMB, but the LMB haven't been spawning well in our pond (seem to have missed a spawn this year). We're aiming for the species balance to be very YP-heavy, with a few RES, and with a few adult BG and PS to provide some forage. We also have at least 1 old BCP, but they've never spawned in our pond. Every LMB caught/trapped in future years will be removed. The BG are/will be managed VERY aggressively to keep them from stunting, which so far this year seems to be working successfully. My plan so far is to harvest adult BG ruthlessly each Fall/Winter/Spring, leaving only a quite low number to spawn through the Summer to produce forage for the YP. We pellet feed the YP fairly heavily all growing season. Our pond has no shallow cover, so the YP can hopefully better predate on YoY BG. We're also trapping heavily to monitor YoY BG numbers, and feeding all trapped BG as cut bait to our YP. If my trapping is any evidence, the YP have decimated the < 2" BG population (not a single BG < 2" trapped in past couple weeks, and trapping rate of > 2" BG has also gradually dropped off to almost nothing). Now I'm considering bucket stocking maybe 30-40 BG mid-late Summer to let them spawn for a bit and produce plenty of little late-season YoY to serve as YP forage through the Fall and especially over Winter (we have about 135 YP, for comparison). Then to the extent that we can target the adult BG (flies or topwaters maybe), I'd like to harvest them back down to fairly low numbers in late-Fall and early next Spring. We're also planning to cage and pellet train YoY YP each year to protect them and maintain good numbers of YP and bolster their growth.

Side note on water quality: Our visibility has dropped from several feet earlier this year to maybe only 18" now that the water has warmed up.