I became the proud custodian of this 40 year old 2.5 acre pond last May. The previous owner was a BCP man, and stocked it accordingly. It has BG for the forage base, and a (seemingly) healthy reproducing stock of BCP. I only caught one 11 inch large mouth bass last spring, shortly after starting to fish the pond.
In my minds eye, I would love to convert the pond's fishery over to more and other species, and the search for knowledge about how to do this led me straight to the Pond Boss Forum!
I read with great interest the recent thread regarding BCP and LGB and using one to control growth of the other, or HSB, etc. I also found it very informative regarding the discussion of BCP forage sources, as well as BOW size and it's ability to support BCP growth and reproduction. I'm still learning ( and gathering data) on my pond, but I think the BCP must also consume zooplankton to some degree and not just utilize the BG for forage. I have only begun to measure and weigh our fish, but for the small sample size I took last summer, was finding relative weights above 95% consistently. Largest BCP caught was 14 inches (Mrs Perrin!) and many in the 12-13 inch range. All seemed well filled out. We did catch other sizes as well, which gave me the impression reproduction was doing ok. That last line probably made you cringe (I concede it's lack of factual support), as it's just my hunch, but I'm working on collecting the hard data so I can KNOW. :-)
Sorry for the long post. I have on my wish list to change over my fishery (to possibly include YP and WE) but am still 'doing my homework' before I attempt any changes/corrective stocking, et al.
