Justin, the 13" LMB at 1# 5 oz isn't under weight, a 100% RW bass is 1 pound, 1.6 ounces. What chart are you using to calculate RW?
I agree that you might have been a bit heavy on the LMB numbers on initial stocking, but if you were managing for large BG then you weren't heavy. But, it sounds like you are wanting to focus on growing the bass. If that is the case, then I'd try to have 75-100 bass in 1.5 acres.
The initial FHM stocking was around 13 pounds, give or take.
If the bass and bluegill were about the same size at stocking, then all the bass had to eat were the FHM and other natural forage. The BG might not have been able to grow large enough to spawn the first year, so the LMB were set back in growth the first year. Were the LMB and panfish all the same size at stocking? Were the fish stocked pellet trained and were you feeding?
You aren't seeing any small BG now because the bass in there are eating them.
LMB target fish about 1/4-1/3 their length to eat.
I think it was a combination of too little forage of the correct size for the LMB to grow fast, AND an outside predator be it feathered or furred.
But that's all water under the bridge now, we need to come up with a plan to turn it around.
I would continue to yank bass out this year, of all sizes, and I would stock 500-1000 5"+ feed trained Coppernose early enough to allow them to spawn a few times. I would set up a automatic feeder and target feeding the panfish with a mixture of Optimal Bluegill Jr. and regular Optimal Bluegill food.
I would also look into adding more cover to the pond that was dense to provide escape refugees for the fingerling CNBG near their bedding areas. You want the cover to have spaces inside to allow the small fish to swim, but not large enough spaces to allow the bass to chase them inside the cover. Then after you have a forage base built up, next year slow down on culling bass.
To get each bass to put on one pound of weight, it has to eat roughly 10 pounds of fish, so by doing the math you can see that a tremendous amount of fish will be eaten by the bass per year.
If you are not seeing 2"-3" BG in the pond, then there are too many 8"-10" bass in the pond.
I agree that that size fish is not "under weight", but it is below 100% RW. Also, it is the only fish that was close to 100% RW. We had a large bluegill spawn in the Spring of 2015....fingerlings were everywhere. The bream were 1-3" when stocked in January and the LMB were 1.5-2" when stocked on July 1st (just found my exact date). Both bass and bream were pellet trained, I did feed, and they ate like crazy!
