Hey Soggy, every pond is different in nature and has it's own very unique systems.. We need to remember this is about "MOSTLY" private owned, private managed ponds and my personal opinion is you do what you want to manage your system.
If you ask about help with fish we should try and stick to that.. If you ask about help with turtles, we'll discuss that. In general, this is predator control, high numbers of turtles are the reason there are so many firms building traps, but if a guy wants to pop them, so be it. I'm ok with that.
I'm here to try and add my advice about what your question pertains too and I "think" that's what most folks are here for also.
As for finding GSF in your pond I think that's good! Can't really think of anything more prolific to potentially support a Blue cat fishery. That's a good find! It sounds like the sizes you been able to catch with cast net possibly indicates slightly predator heavy but that's manageable. Pull a few cats out and maybe look into some dense (thick) cover for a bit more survival/recruitment of any such forage.
