Dave,
You made two excellent points that jumped out at me. One was raised previously by Ric when he questioned me on "what difference does it make whether the bass are full of protein from Tilapia vs artificial feeders?" Or to that effect...apologies to Ric if I misquoted his excellent question.
I may be wrong, in fact am probably wrong, but my experience as a rancher and outdoors person says to me that a predator that has to hustle for its food will be a more aggressive predator. A LMB will have to hustle for Tilapia and BG without feeders present.
The second point, on pond size, is very relevant, I believe. My rants have always been with respect to small ponds that I have personal years of experience with.
I'm convinced, unashamedly so, that Florida LMB in small ponds with artificial feeders, catch and release, and fishing pressure does not work. Many variables in that statement. I've been trying to isolate the variables with my experiments to determine what the main factors are and how to correct for them...standard engineering approach which has served me well in another life.
That's what this is all about for me. Thanks for the comments.
