bstone,
Don't worry too much about lost potential and focus your energy on other things. The biggest loss is the length increment of the age. Hatchery fingerlings in the 1-3 sizes are often low RW and even shorter than they would have otherwise been if stocked in a fresh farm pond at 2 months of age. In a hatchery pond, within 45 to 60 days the growth of the new hatch slows dramatically. They are between 1" and 2" at that time. Most people want to buy 1"-3" fingerlings for stocking so they don't try to grow them fast but rather maintain them so they grow slowly. This is the way of industry by and large. Purchasing last years crop for stocking in March kind of ensures you will be buying fish with lost potential.
Buying fish when hatcheries have new crop at 1"-2" in the field will not guarantee that you will get new crop fingerlings. I wish I could say it would. So you will just work with what you have. There is a lot of years ahead of them and so how you take care of them from here will determine their growth path from here. You can still grow them remarkably. Your stocking plan suggests an emphasis for LMB. This is probably where you need to be focused on getting very good fingerlings (young and long). I say young and long because there is going to be a lot of forage in your pond that is too big for new crop 2" LMB to eat. Some of the BG could eat them. So if buying advanced fingerlings there is room for older fingerlings to work their way into your order. As much as possible, you want length that is appropriate for the age of the fingerling.
