JE Craig,
I think that Esshup is correct that there were/are too many bass. That said, I think it is also possible that your BG are not spawning frequently enough. Are you seeing frequent spawning activity? If not ... the population of BG, though not exceeding numerous ... may be at the limits of carrying capacity for the biomass of BG. In other words, they may not be inclined to spawn frequently. Also the biomass may be very concentrated in males. For sure, the LMB you have are not getting the forage they need to thrive.
I will mention a couple other things. You are in a warm location and the metabolic requirements of LMB are very high there. I am not sure of your precise location and local climate (something that varies north to south in climate) but I feel confident that your forage requirements per pound of LMB exceeds that of DFW where I live. Here we need around 5.8 lbs of forage to maintain 1 lb of LMB for 1 year. There the requirement would be well over 6 lbs. Long periods of warm water means you need more spawns and you need to be seeing spawning activity in regular intervals during the warm months. Regular intervals of spawning should also result in distributions of BG across all sizes ... provided ... the number of LMB is appropriate for the production of BG YOY.
So a couple of things come to mind.
1. Having more nests tend to increase production of forage. There is more buffer for the dominant males in the centers of colonies and just more brooding males to deter egg predation. From this perspective, you may need more brood sized BG but in smaller sizes to give you more opportunities of nest success. Since you don't have 4-6" BG to grow into brooder sizes, you probably need to replace any BG you remove with BG of this size range. I would probably replace at 2 or 3 to one. Depending on the length of those you remove this would probably still not fully replace the biomass removed. This would do two things, free carrying capacity allowing replacements to grow well and increase the potential for more frequent spawning.
2. Appropriate populations are balanced to carrying capacity and so it isn't just a number. If your water is lean with a low food limited carrying capacity then the populations will necessarily need to be lower to have fish in good condition. What we don't know is how much your water can carry and why. You can increase carry in a number of ways. For example, reduce excessive macrophytes, increase alkalinity, fertilize, supplement with feed. Any thing you do to increase food limited carry capacity will increase spawning activity and help to produce more forage. I would still prep the pond by getting the pond as close as possible to a goaled population and then institute some program that boosts food limited carry. I would give some thought to stocking say 5 or 6 one pound FEMALE LMB per acre no older than 2 years of age. I would mark them in such a way (eg fin clips) that I could always release them back to the water for continued growth and so I could track their growth. I would declare war on the others until the population were to reflect a healthy population. A great time to introduce the females would be when you have a successful spawn and numerous >1" BG are being observed. But availability may limit your timing. You can also supplement forage when adding the females. About 2 lbs of 2" BG per lb of LMB would not be an excessive amount but would carry the population for a couple or more months. A forage pond is really good for supplements like this especially when you aren't recruiting enough YOY.
