It is a #s game. I read once where less than 1% of LMB spawned reach 1yr of age. You can work with large #s of fish and small survival % when you have a full pond and an established fishery. But that won't work in small stocking #s unless you are going to spend a lot of money on constantly stocking and restocking fish. A high % of the first fish stocked into a pond have to survive to establish a sound base to work from. It is not the first fish in that are forage it is their offspring. That is the reason for stocking larger BG -- so that they will be brood stock and not eaten.