I've had similar struggles with BG recruitment in my new BOW in east Texas. Newly hatched BG need plankton, so one thing you could do is fertilize until you get a bloom. Otherwise, they'll starve & cover won't help.
I should have mentioned it but I felt like I was rambling enough, I plan to feed pellets. Depending on what that does to the visibility I may fertilize next year, but I didn't want to do both and cause some kind of crash.
In my case I had folks put certain plants in the pond that would help protect YOY BG, as my BOW was barren. This may or may not work out, as plants can sometimes get out of hand! Frankly I wouldn't recommend this approach unless you get a professional to check the situation out carefully.
Brush helps, and I've done it too. The only problem is that it doesn't last. If you don't mind doing & redoing it, that can be a good solution.
I'm with you on the plants. It's tempting but the elderly family members primarily care about the aesthetics of the pond, so if I end up putting something in there that goes wild (and we have a long growing season) I'll be out of the job as volunteer pond manager.
What I don't mind is replenishing the brush piles periodically. My small bass population control associates also double as cheap manual labor. Thanks for the insight, this is exactly the kind of discussion I was looking for.
