Well, you could be right, jpsdad. Perhaps the developer was disingenuous. Or maybe the stocker messed up. Heck, maybe there was a miscommunication, as the developer didn't strike me as very knowledgeable about fish. He could have asked for generic catfish assuming that they would be CC.
Absolutely none of that seems likely to me. I think the more likely "rest of the story" is that BH were already in holes of the creek upon which the lake was built. It was servicing more than one home after all and so I presume it had a decent size. If they weren't in the lake from the beginning, then it is very likely they swam in from waters above or below in high water.
You see, it doesn't surprise me that survey didn't yield CC. Usually the procedure and settings for shocking them up is different. So I could see what survey revealed without drawing any of the conclusions.
Assumptions can be killers sometimes
Interesting thing about "true assumptions", is that they cannot be proven false. In fact, good assumptions are required to arrive at potential truth. What you describe as potential truth are the presumptions that you are ready to accept as true. There is a big difference. The developer was disingenuous, the stocker messed up, there was a miscommunication, these are all things that can be proven false with sufficient inquiry into evidence. Same goes for the more likely scenario that BH were already in the watershed.
I do know that the developer wanted a copy of the survey report, he seemed pretty steamed. One way or another, it pays to check out the situation for yourself rather than relying on the words of other people. I didn't buy a home there, so the survey was some of the best $ I've ever spent.
I think I know you well enough, though please correct me if I am wrong, to conclude it wasn't the lack of CC in a CC lake that caused you to back out. You don't seem to be to be a channel catfish kind of guy. It seems more likely the presence of BH in an LMB lake that discouraged you. I have to wonder how the fishing is there now (I suppose many years later). Maybe its a trophy bass lake, not assuming mind you as one could prove it false, even so it is a potential truth.
