jpsdad - "(Eric what are your thoughts on ideal proportion for BG and for TP respectively?). I would rather prefer to start with less brood and grow the fry to full maturity so that they can begin producing fry upon release to the main pond. In such case they are optimal prey for large bass AND are producing young. "

That was my thought as well. Everyday you keep a BG or tilapia fry alive and growing the poundage increase in forage is exponential. Also habituate all fish stocked into a pond with adult predator fish. An additional thought I had was to move the 4 inch (breeding size) tilapia into the big lake behind blocking nets so you would get more production than just the small forage pond. No doubt that the forage pond alone won't produce enough new forage for the big lake - its just to small. But it could tip the balance toward better results in the big pond with other measures included.

I don't think anyone knows the best BG/tilapia ratio as it depends on so many other factors (productivity , goals , current status , location etc.). My thought was to also increase BG #/poundage by stocking to offset tilapia loss due to winter. Then be able to repeat next spring with tilapia all while harvesting LMB to meet goals.