By the second season I would expect the forage to mostly be gone and feed would need to be increased.
I have to wonder if there may be implemented some type of management that makes sustaining a vibrant forage base a realizable goal. Well not just that but also predictable performance in harvest and quality of fishing. To be sure, I would want the PK shrimp, red shiner, and Gambusia to replenish annually. To me, the key is keeping their predators limited both in number and in combined weight/acre so that the reproductive qualities of these prey are sufficient to resist complete elimination.
In a BOW with reproducing lepomis, I think this approach is untenable and might likely fail. It seems wholly plausible in the presence of so many mouths and so great a biomass of fish that they simply cannot reproduce as fast as they can be eaten. But with HSB only, particularly where the small fingerlings can be acquired annually and the predators of the BOW tightly controlled this seems at least possible. A modest fall stocking of 5" HSB fill a niche normally occupied by lepomis and are essentially panfish in the BOW that can be partially supported in part with modest feed input. So at stocking rate of only 500 to 600 per acre they represent a smaller standing weight than one would normally expect to go into winter with a reproducing lepomis. It may be possible for this stocking rate to allow winter growth on natural foods without extinction of natural prey like the PK shrimp, gambusia, and red shiner. In the spring supplement feed can take some of the pressure off the natural forage.
Still there may be too many fish at that stocking rate to keep natural forage abundant. So a spring harvest greatly reducing the number of HSB might help with this. If the HSB achieve 10 inches by May, then the standing weight of 600 HSB/acre at this time of year would be about 300 lbs/acre. If 500 are harvested, then the standing weight is reduced to 50 lbs/acre. So now you have a much smaller weight to support and these fish are progressively favoring larger prey (like the red shiner and tilapia if these are annually stocked). This transition to larger prey allows the smaller prey to recover and build populations through the summer and into fall so they are abundant for the next stocking of 5" HSB "panfish". The remaining 100 HSB/Acre have grown to a standing weight of only 125 lbs/acre and if they are removed the red shiner and gambusia that remain have a chance to re-establish populations the following year.
By not having a every size of HSB in the BOW carrying from year to year, the HSB go through a progression of prey that transitions from one prey form to the next allowing exploited populations to recover. At least that is the theory. To be sure, I think once lepomis species are introduced, they will consume most of the small prey and extirpate some and perhaps all of them. The drawback to a pond management scheme like this that the HSB are not allowed to grow to a large size which might be a priority for some. My goal in such a small BOW would not include HSB > 1.25 lbs. Nothing scientific about that ... just a personal preference that is aligned to a bigger harvest and more fish dancing at the end of the line.
Last edited by jpsdad; 10/15/1906:36 PM.
It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so - Will Rogers
