I think if I was stocking all females and my experiences with all female yellow perch I would stock them as two or threes sessions. About 1/2 to 1/3 at each stocking. There are definitely positives and negatives to the timing of adding the female bass. Pros - This gives the all female population different year classes and different size groups. 1. Each group would be consuming different sizes of reproducing prey fish that I think makes more efficient use of the mixture of the size classes or groups that will comprise the forage community. 2. As the stockers age it provides some diversity in the catch sizes. 3. As the first females age "out",,, the pond still has a good number of younger still growing and healthy LMB. 4. It lowers the initial $$ payout for buying the more expensive all female LMB. 5. Different size groups I think would provide better angler catch rate success because younger fish have seen fewer lures and are more likely to bite a lure. Plus as explained in the above jpsdad post, the younger LMB size class/es are eating more prey biomass per pound of predator that should cause the younger bass to eat more often and hopefully be more likely to attack a lure for RW sampling events.
Someone else can present the negative aspects of the stocking process.
An all female LMB population IMO would periodically or annually need to have a few to several added female replacements due to angler hooking and handling damages with will occur if angling is used. Thus as the need arises more stocker females can be added to the initial stock female basis. The bigger the fish the less it tolerates handling by anglers, especially uneducated and anglers that do not how to properly handle a large LMB as catch and release fish. Expect to see fewer bass as the amount of angling increases.
