I spent what seemed an hour or more reading this thread. Here are some of my thoughts at this point.
1. Nice lake with very good average depths. Low percentage of shallow water that can contribute to rooted vegetation problems.
2. Do a rooted weed survey this early summer May-Jun to early fall Sep to document dominant aquatic weed species. Weed community will change over time. Plot weed beds and approx size on your map.
3. Get or make a secchi disk and measure water transparency every week or every two weeks. April to end of Oct/Nov. Plot visibilities on a graph - (excel or similar). As the number of small panfish/filter feeders increases the transaprency will decrease.
4. Does lake have an inlet and outlet? One is not shown on the map. Inlet & outlet will give some info about fertility and retention time and can affect stratificaion.
5. Does lake straify and if so at what depth?
6. If water is as clear as you note (10'-12' up to 14') that suggests to me a lower fertility and productivity and lower carrying capacity (fish biomass) than a lake with 2'-4' of vis. This means you may not have as many small skinny bass/ac as you think you have. Ewest suggests removing 20LMB/ac. It can be a target number. See No 8.
7. Without doing a survey and based on what fish you say are present (numerous predator types), I think the lake has a large and healthy zooplankton population causing the overall clear water conditions (filter feeders). Lake should have lower transparencies due to runoff from connecting house lots. See No 11.
8. For the 1st yr and with numerous NP present/ac(10/ac) you might want to reduce the LMB removed number to 14-18/ac. Then re-assess number removed in 2011 based on catch records. The 12"-20" NP will be in 2010 keying 1&2yr old bass and 3-4" panfish. In 2011 and beyond average consumed forage size will gradually increase. Those 30"+ NP were eating the 8"-12" bass and medium panfish. Since you indicate there are a fair number of small BG IMO you don't want to remove too many bass right away that could dramatically affect the overall catch rate for the average angler. Some like frequent catching versus less frequent with larger size. As mentor Bob Lusk says, the angler catch records will indicate progress and status of the fishery.
9. Have all pike caught so far been removed? Now that we know the NP are probably not recruiting very many if any new ones into the lake IMO keep removing all pike caught. Lake can probably do okay with 2-3 NP/ac. Eventually anglers can get out all NP over the next 4-6 yrs.
10. The manmade structures you will add in a lake this size IMO will basically amount to fish attractors and not refuge areas for small fish. OK to Place them in deeper water front of your dads place or where you prefer to fish. Ideally they should be shallower water 3'-5' but in a HOA lake, deep is okay. We are not talking a very big percentage of the bottom area with structures. Your weed beds and emergent shoreline vegetation will be your main habitat/refuge for fish (large and small).
11. Is shoreline completely surrounded with houses?. Where are houses in relation to the perimeter of shoreline? Make a new map with dots, boxes, or Xs for houses. Then suggestions can be made for vegetation plantings based on house lots and the location of weed beds on the new vegetation map to be produced.
12. For beneficial vegetation do a search here and or read through this thread.
http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=213182#Post213182There are other good species besides those listed that could be introduced based on what your vegetation survey reports. Other BOW's in the chain of lakes or the adjacent wetland/marsh would have specimens/seeds for transplant.
13. That picture of the BG you posted did not look little (2"-4")to me. It was the same BG pic from the ice fishing pics and looked close to 6"-7"long. It was a mature male BG and typically BG don't mature in a lake fishery like your dad's until they are around 7" or more long. Typically stunted BG mature at smaller sizes.
14. IMO the larger LMB they catch in the lake are eating a fair number of small bass. This is a common occurrence in a bass heavy lake. A few big ones feeding on numerous smaller ones because they are common and available. As you remove a larger percentage of smaller skinny bass from the lake expect the average size of BG to decrease. Cach records will verify this.
16 Catch records should also include sizes of BG&crappie csught.
