I think the point CJ is trying to make is that letting FHM or BG get a few spawns in before predation will allow the forage base to maximum it's effeciency, or in other words get the most bang for your buck.
Close to what I was saying... FHM, BNM, LCS, BKF and other species of SOLELY forage fish should be given a substantial jump start on the stocking of bass. At least a year... BG, YP and others, that is highly dependable, many times I would say stock them after the bass but in a size too large for the current bass to eat for a balanced fishery.
I do think you both can agree that anyway you slice it FHM will not survive long term in a BG/LMB pond.
I agree, FHM don't have a shot in establishing an extended self reproducing population. However, if the correct habitat is there, BNM, LCS and BKF certainly can. However, they need time to build their numbers before the introduction of bass unless you stock extremely large numbers of them which is not possible for the average pondmeister's bank account or ability to catch and prepare large numbers of those species from wild sources. Perhaps the only species I wouldn't put in this category are GSH. With them I would just stock larger adults when I stocked the fingerling bass to reduce the risk of them overpopulating and overly competing with the sunfish.
In a balanced fishery, the stocking of 2"-3" BG in the fall followed by the stocking of 2"-3" LMB in the spring would lead to a healthy balance under most conditions. The idea is that the bass are not big enough to eat the original stocked BG but are big enough to immediately and efficiently prey on their offspring. However, southern states with their longer growing season may require the building of the BG population for a year before the bass are stocked. This is the big difference between northern and southern ponds, the length of the growing season! Even if the goal is a balanced fishery, southern ponds may need this building period. The reason, a longer growing season means bass are feeding at the warm weather higher metabolism rate for more of the year. This means the bass will consume more BG in a southern pond than a northern pond. THIS is the reason that a southern pond may need a building year prior to bass stocking, even if a balanced pond is the goal.
Maybe you would want your average BG a little larger say 4-6". In order to achieve this you would put LMB in sooner to start predation sooner and limit the number of BG in the pond. Which will in turn eliminate competition for resources and increase overall size distribution of the population.
This is where size of fish stocked along with timing can really change the dynamics. Size of fish stocked along with numbers is just as important as the timing of the stocking.
There are many management options available to the pondmeister. It is important that we know what our goals are for our fishery from day one as each action we take during our management will have long term effects.
VERY TRUE... We must also remember that even with a well laid out stocking plan, each pond is different and management of ponds is ongoing. This is so we can tweak things to keep them progressing towards our goals.
