The places to hide will actually be a good thing as far as establishing a good forage base.
The reason being, if there are few places to hide the YOY fish get eaten while they are very small and provide very little nutrition to the predators. If the small fish have a place to hide, it ups the probability that they can escape predation during the very vulnerable small stage and grow large enough to provide more than just a tiny snack for a LMB or other predator.
Too many weeds and hiding places can actually cause a problem of over production of forage fish (and eventual stunting because of the over production). So in your case where you are worried about having enough forage production, the places for the small fish to hide is actually likely a good thing. It will help with your forage fish production.
I don't know if it has already been said in this thread, but HBG tend to be male heavy - a high proportion of males. That is another reason they do not reproduce on the same level as BG.
If you want to increase your forage base, keeping the HBG and GSF and returning the BG and RES sounds like a reasonable plan to me. At least until you are satisfied that your forage base is up to desired levels.
Last edited by snrub; 06/01/15 04:29 AM.
