Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Relative weight charts in Excel ? Calculations?

Scenarios like this happen EVERYWHERE, in everyone's 6 or 7 year old pond and in all lakes and reservoirs. It is a consequence of forage limitation. When there is plenty of forage to fully satiate a fish, that fish will almost always be of high relative weight ... with few exceptions. There is no way the 22" was 90 RW when it was 20". It may have had higher RW than the other LMB at 20" and indeed probably did because it was growing faster. It would have taken two years to decline to 90 RW and during that time it would have probably gained only a few ounces. Some may want to blame the fish, as you seem to, but the source of problems like this is forage limitation. There is a wall a population reaches where the population and forage production balances to a ultimate size limitation. In the example above the size limitation is between 5 and 6 lbs. We could say that the population "stunts" between 5 and 6 lbs (currently between 5 and 6 lbs, without population management, the "stunting" weight will decline with time).

Taking either fish will benefit the other. Taking the 20" fish is what I would personally do in my pond knowing them to be of the same age. For the reasons I described above. The RW of either fish will improve by taking other out. The outcome would be good either way. But one will not get the chance to test the outcomes and then choose the best. He has to make a choice and then live with the choice he made. If he doesn't take one of them out, then the table below shows what he can expect with the same forage consumption. 2023 is the current scenario ... 2024 is next year's expectations on the same limited forage consumption.



When a fish's weight gain stalls they still grow longer. RW declines as their weight stalls because they grow longer. They trade muscle and fat for bigger mouth, fins, and bones. The larger frame helps them adapt to more limited resources enabling them to survive longer eating fewer but larger prey. When forage is limited, RW will always favor fish that are shorter than the longest fish. As proof of this I offer the Texas Top 50 where length explains ~90% of the variation of RW.