I have some mixed emotions about PSD. It ignores an awful lot of the total bass density (8 in. or less) which can have the biggest effect on forage and thus the greatest potential damage on predator/prey relationships or pond balance. However, in a BOW with a good bass distribution, most of those smaller ones wind up as "bait for the biguns" with very little proportional recruitment. Compound the creel survey problem with the fact from studies that about 50% of the bass in a population never bite a hook. Electrofishing tends to favor the smaller, dumber bass that hang out in skinny water.

All of that means that we can only make guesses, albeit educated guesses, if we use a snapshot approach to decision making. Jimbob is doing it right by keeping an ongoing record. If it were me, and it's not, I would eliminate fish with a low WR. That would tend to indicate an out of balance condition for that size in the total bass distribution. It is symptomatic of overeating the forage base that the low WR predators prey on.

Jimbob, all of those six bit words say that you have too many bass in a given size range compared to the appropriately sized bluegill they need to stay healthy. Yeah, they can eat smaller ones but have to expend more energy to get them. They can durn sure overeat their prey and cause a problem. Eat the ones that are of low WR and don't ever release a bass under 12 inches back into the pond.

It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP Grandpa