Just an uneducated thought.
What about a Sucker forage base for NP, Muskie and TM.
6-10" suckers are a preferred Ice fishing bait with tip up's for these toothy carnivore's, at least in these parts of MI.
While they are not approved for culture in MI, I can take my cast net on the North Pier in Grand Haven, and catch a whopping pile really quick.
How would they do in a pond?
That was my initial thought, but suckers apparently require running water to spawn. If I'm mistaken, they would probably be a great forage species, I know that they make up a significant % of Musky diets in some lakes. I actually thought of bullhead because they're similar to suckers in many ways and I know they will spawn prolifically in ponds.
Lake Chub Suckers are definitely a possibility, I was just concerned that they wouldn't hold up to serious predation.
I don't know if Muskies target fish that live close to the bottom of the lake like bullheads. I'm thinking more along the lines of gizzard shad.
I'm by no means an expert, this is just a hypothetical I was throwing around in my head. My guess was that suckers seem to hang out on the bottom and Musky eat them, so Musky would eat bullhead too. My uneducated guess is that Gizzard Shad would be a good addition to a bottom feeder for forage as GS feed from a different part of the food chain.
TX
I continually find myself right in step with the way you think...we gotta get on the phone one of these days!
I love your project idea, one that I've been entertaining for a while, also. I feel TM would fit in many pond scenarios and one wouldn't have to simply focus on a two species pond. I agree, TM do need forage, but they can easily handle sizable YP and BG. I totally understand your BH reasoning, but why not create a fishery that not only boasted trophy TM but also trophy YP, BG, and SMB or LMB and add a sustainable forage fish like GSH? IMO the TM will apply tons of pressure on the other species and while their population might not be strong, the fish around will be large. That's my reasoning, but it's just an educated WAG.
Interesting idea, I was just worried that a multi-predator small pond would cause too much competition, or in the TM eating all the bass and resulting in a crazy overspawned mess of BG.
