If you want HSB to manage your BG population, limit or eliminate your pellet program and rely on aquatic invertabrates to grow your BG. That's my recommendation. I just don't have the guts to stop the feeding...but I should, and measure the impact on my BG population.
And therein lies the rub. At least where growing trophy BG is concerned. I understand your hesitation regarding suspending your feeding program, TJ... I sure wouldn't be in favor of it in my ponds.
I'm beginning to see artificial feeding in a different light. Keeping in mind that I'm referring to HBG, not native BG. I once considered pellet feeding as a supplemental source, with natural forage comprising the majority of my fish's diet. Now I see it the other way around, with artificial feed being the primary source, and natural forage being supplemental. Having a natural forage source would be great, but I think it carries with it an unacceptable risk...that being the neccessity of providing cover for the forage itself, if there is to be any chance of it becoming self-sustaining. That same cover can also be utilized by yoy fish, and when it comes to HBG, or even BG, I don't consider that a good thing, especially in a small pond.
I use LMB to control both my BG and my HBG, because they are cheap and plentiful. In three years of management over the HBG pond, I have yet to see any recruitment from either HBG, or LMB. I'm sure there must be some of both, but their numbers are evidently so small as to not be cause for concern. They don't show up in traps, or by angling.
I'm cautiously wondering if I have struck a balance of a different sort, in which the population is not self-sustaining, but rather self-limiting. I'm hopeful, but only time will tell.
