I'm glad this thread is active again. I have had this thought in my head but was reluctant to bring it up because I didn't know if it has been discussed before or if it is really worth mentioning. Anyhow here it goes.

As I understand from Bruce (and some others) that by keeping some of the largest male BG in your pond you suppress the sexual maturation of the younger male BG and make them reach a larger size before they start burning energy spawning (locker room effect \:D ). My question is could the young BG be fooled by a decoy of a big male BG. Decoys are used in hunting all the time and are able to fool animals smarter than fish. I was thinking of a plastic decoy attached to a weight by some clear mono. The decoy would be suspended over a weight and maintain a natural level stance. The decoy would be a big male in full breeding color and several could be placed in the spawning area. It would need some algae resistant coating. Do you think this could fool the fish?

I would think it would be best in a new stocked pond or a pond where the harvest of eating size BG is high.

Maybe a cage experiment with one group penned up with a few decoys and another cage as a control group could be done and you could see if there is any difference in maturation. Has this ever been done before? Am I all wet on this idea? Don't hold back I can take it.

Cecil seems like the ideal guy to develop the decoy and make it realistic. I am willing to volunteer Cecil's time and money if this idea has potential ;\) \:D :rolleyes: . Besides if it works it could be a neat little side business.

All kidding to Cecil aside I would like to hear opinions on this pro and con. Also if I am spending my time thinking about putting fake fish in a pond to intimidate real fish so they will grow bigger do I have some serious issues :rolleyes: ?

Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?