Norm I wonder if losing most what spawns each year is occuring in my pond as well. I have a very strong predator population with hsb and lmb being dominate. I know that some of the lmb are large enough to eat the year old hsb when we stock them because we see it happen. We also very rarely catch bass that are smaller than what we have already stocked. I have also noticed that the size of the bluegill we catch is also very large which makes me think that most of the bluegill spawn is being eaten. This year I am only going to stock forage species such as shiners and bluegill and try to get a better idea if the bass are having any of their young survive predation. It probably doesn't help that the water in the pond this winter is very clear and the predators can really see their prey. I just hope that I don't lose all of my shad to predation this winter before I can get the tilapia going again. I have seen the hsb chasing the shad twice this winter driving some of them into the shore. I think the tilapia really take a lot of the stress off of the rest of the forage when they are in the pond and limit the filamentous algae to almost nothing not to mention they are good to eat. Ewest if you are having to use blocking nets in order for the fish to reach a certian size before you release them is this happening in yours as well?
