James, here are my thoughts for what they are worth:
I have seen hsb stocked into ponds with heavy feeding programs and not grow even a couple inches after several years. Not common, but I have seen it.
I havent seen hsb reproduce yet naturally, but have read that it is possible.
Your pond is an uncharacteristic catfish baby making factory..........
I would have put that HSB your dad caught on the wall, no questions about it. That fish most likely will not survive coming out of the water after being caught. We eat big hybrid striped bass we catch during the summer because mortality is extremely high. They swim off but we find em dead in clear water days later. To release them in the summer we leave them in the water and unhook them.
My take on aeration in ponds and lakes is that it is an absolutely must for someone wanting to push the envelope on growing trophy fish. Watching how fish relate to aeration systems first hand underwater is pretty cool stuff. Angling by aeration systems (just ask Bruce about angling by some of my aerators) is a pretty good indicator of what they can do as well. Purely from a fish's perspective and throw all of the other benefits of moving water out the window, but purely for fish reasons alone you want to start saving for the system. Shad and bluegill stack up in the current by the thousands and the HSB and LMB utilize them big time.
I started putting structures by aerators and you can't even fathom in your wildest dreams what kind of fishing spot that creates.
