Thought/question on culling fish. From things I have read, the aggressiveness of fish is genetic. That is, if a person stocked only fish that could be caught multiple times, that their offspring would also be more aggressive.
That said, if a bunch of people go to work trying to fish out a balance problem in a BOW...won't the fish that are left (that didn't bite during the attempt to fish the problem out) be likely to breed generations less aggressive fish?
Sean
That is exactly right. Also why it is often suggested that you use shock boat to remove fish as that is not limited to catchable fish.
From a prior thread - see chart from study
Keep in mind that over time the death of LMB (by catch and keep or death due to catch stress)all target the fish that are apt to bite (catchable fish). See other threads on the heritability of catchability.I would suggest that you keep records and harvest fish (the skinny or oversized class)by electroshock as it does not target catchable fish.
More on catchability - the chart below shows a 50% reduction in catch rates over 3 generations.
THE CUTTING EDGE � SCIENCE REVIEW
By Eric West
Aggressiveness - it should have been obvious � it�s in the genes
Catchability, how likely a fish is to bite a lure, is a problem encountered by pondmiesters and is often referred to as aggressive fish vs. non-aggressive fish. It has been debated on several occasions on the Pond Boss Forum and articles have appeared in Pond Boss magazine concerning possible management options for fish that don�t bite well. So what are we missing that is so obvious about this aggressiveness trait?
The new study is titled Recreational Fishing Selectively Captures Individuals with the Highest Fitness Potential by David A. H. Suttera, Cory D. Suskib, David P. Philippb, Thomas Klefotha, David H. Wahlb, Petra Kerstene, Steven J. Cooke, and Robert Arlinghaus , in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1212536109 , October 26, 2012. This study, using the same genetic line as the first study noted above, found that the trait �catchability or vulnerability to angling� positively correlates with 1) aggression, 2) intensity of parental care, and 3) reproductive fitness.
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Electrofishing has been the preferred method for collecting non-biased samples of largemouth bass for genetics studies over the last three decades and while capture rates may differ among seasons and throughout the day, no bias in the collection of either subspecies has been observed in numerous studies. Additionally, one study reported that largemouth bass collected using rotenone and electofishing from impoundments exhibited no differences in genotype frequencies.
Look for threads here on catchability. The info is here as is the research.
Here are a couple with links
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=274175&page=1http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...true#Post200220http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...true#Post260622 
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