From the old Johnny Carson Show : \:D

Karnak -- a po-boy RAS , a hatchery order for
SMB fingerlings and 50 % protein
SMB feed.

question -- What will be under the xmas tree for
Shorty.

Bruce :

You are correct there is no sub. for length. But even advanced fingerlings/small adults get eaten when placed in predator filled ponds . Its just that the % survival is better but you are working from much smaller numbers. That is why I posted the topic on the study about protecting newly stocked fish (all sizes) for a short period to reduce predation. Also on a cost/effort basis it is hard to RAS enough adult fish to stock a 15 acre pond . That is why it is hard to find large advanced fingerling/adult LMB . Most people don't or can't pay a high enough price to warrant hatchery growout to length over 8in.+-. That seems to be changing. I have had a much easier time finding them lately vs. 5 years ago. Many factors to survivability and fitness and growth --so little time to figure them out. \:\)