The one nice thing about feed is you can always add more if you're experiencing competition among different fish species for it. I do agree HSB are poor predators when they are pellet fed. Not much need for them to chase down food live food when they can find it just floating on the surface. Perhaps it would be prudent in a pond where quality crappie where the goal to not pellet feed to make your HSB hungry... I do agree the limiting of cover is extremely important is maximizing LMB predation of crappies and I think even more important in maximizing HSB predation on crappies. It would seem to me you would want to limit the amount of spawning area for crappies to keep their reproductive potential to a minimum.