Relative condition rules everything else. Trouble is with it (condition or RW) you are looking at a snapshot in time. The key is to anticipate what is next - and that is not an easy task. The creator of condition indices - PSD which gives you a better pic of what is to come (Dr. Anderson) gave the following example.

See this thread - http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...true#Post426550

For LMB

This is what is suggested by Dick Anderson - the Prof who wrote the book on PSD.

Keep taking <12 in bass until the number 8-12 equals number 12-15. Ideal pond structure is 40% 8-12, 40% 12-15 and 20% 15+

This assumes good fish condition.

Another suggestion is take out all the fish in poor condition in all size groups. Note the size group that is stunted will have a much higher % of fish in poor condition.

Fisheries science early on (Dr. Homer Swingle the godfather of the subject)learned that you can get a pic of what is going on with a species by looking at the status of its forage. What this means is you can verify RW , condition and size distribution results by looking at BG/tilapia/shad etc. results. For example with BG if you are missing/short on 5 inch BG but have lots of 8-10 inch and 2-3 inch then you likely have to many 14-16 inch LMB. If that corresponds with low RW on that size LMB (14-16) you have confirmation of your problem. Another example of why you look at whole population numbers PSD is to early on curtail future problems. If you have for example 75% in number of your LMB population by electroshock survey being 10 inch healthy LMB then you are out of PSD balance and will have a problem in the future as they will over eat their size forage. So cull to meet the % Anderson provided above from the worse conditioned fish in that size strata as well.

Last edited by ewest; 03/09/17 03:23 PM.