Mark,

I am NOT an expert, but I posed those questions above just so you would provide some more data for the actual experts on the site to evaluate.

A 130 acre lake project is so big, that literally every management action you take is going to be expensive. Therefore, paying out a little money to acquire better "data" might be your most economical alternative in the long term.

You may need to hire a consultant to perform an electrofishing survey. (If it is a community lake can you get a state agency to perform the survey?) It would give you a better sampling of the gamefish population AND the forage fish situation.

I suspect someone spent a lot of money in 2013 to completely rework the lake and stock F1 LMB. Having that initial plan run smoothly for eight years sounds about right. However, now is probably the time to plan the lake management for the next 5-8 years.

Hopefully you can get several of the experts (like Snipe) to post in your thread.

P.S. Esshup posted while I was typing - add him to the "experts list" posting in your thread.

Good luck,
Rod

Last edited by FishinRod; 03/13/21 10:34 AM. Reason: Edited to add another comment.