Jeff F.,
Your project is very interesting and somewhat similar to my own journey which is on a smaller scale and being executed at not nearly as fast a pace...working toward 7 ponds covering about 15 acres of water.
Multiple ponds give you great flexibility to achieve multiple objectives....in my case, they are the only solution I could find to "conditioning" problems.
A couple of things to offer from my experience which hopefully you will find encouraging to your journey...
1) I've raised native LMB to 8.5 pounds without any artificial feeding whatsoever. It took me much longer than the time frame you mentioned...in my case I'd guess about 8 years on the native LMB. Since it was never caught again, I assume that fish didn't live much longer than those 8 years.
2) I've raised pure strain Florida LMB to the 10 pound class in about 6 years...catching them is indeed a challenge. To get to that level has involved Tilapia, Rainbow trout, and artificial feeding of the CNBG forage base. The one 10 pound fish that has been landed was found dead several days after it was caught. This was in winter with excellent water quality conditions leading me to think the fish's death although excelerated by the catch and release was probably going to happen anyway within a year or so.
3) you can raise huge BG in the same pond as your trophy LMB...the pond that is producing 10 pound class LMB has also provided CNBG to about 13 inches.
4) It sounds like you are also experiencing LMB conditioning....just like I have experienced it. The only way to minimize it that I have found is to be very careful about fishing pressure, resting ponds and locations within ponds and limiting fishing to low light conditions as much as practical.
I don't have any experience with artificial feeding in the manner you described and have to wonder about the long term effects to the water quality and fish health. It will be interesting to hear about your results over the long term.
Best wishes on your journey!
