Those young bass with less size than those 5 month old 6”-8” lengths of bass, IMO when wanting trophy stockers are the “runts” and will never reach trophy status. They can be big bass but never achieve trophy status They had too little food, were too crowded, and will never become trophy bass. True trophy 10lb+ bass are unique aggressive eaters and fast growers and HAVE to be 9”-10” long at one year old.
Boondoggle,
I think I am reading your blue highlight section differently than you are?
The important part (to me) is that if you buy undersized bass at the start of your project, you will never achieve trophy bass sizes with those stockers.
A human that was genetically destined to be 5'2" tall cannot be made taller by eating more food, they only get fatter. A human that was genetically destined to be 7'0", can be much shorter at adulthood if they were starved during their early life and puberty. Therefore, any LMB that you get that are far behind the growth curve for their age are either runts, or have been underfed (and will not recover fully).
Adulthood for humans (who stop growing taller) is clearly different than adulthood for LMB. However, there are lots of studies that stunted fish can never get back to their full growth potential, no matter how much you feed them later in life.
[I suspect you get that part, but I typed it out just in case.]
I think there may be some possible confusion over this sentence?
"Fingerling bass of 2”-3” in October thru April are the slower growing bass with less than exceptional genetics of that year class of bass."That sentence seemingly must have a typo/error. It makes sense if you change the "thru" between October and April to "from".
Or, the sentence should have read, "Fingerling bass of 2-3" in April from October ..."
However, I think that is very unlikely. Even for warmer climate fish suppliers, I don't think you get LMB spawns in October.
Therefore, I am reading your blue excerpt as saying any 2-3" LMB that are available for stocking in May or early June are almost certainly "super runts" that may be almost a year old.
[Experts reading this post, please correct if I am attempting to clarify and my post is BS!] However, if you were sourcing 2-3" LMB in early June that were spawned in the same year, then you would almost certainly be stocking the "shooters".
If that was NOT part of your question, then I apologize for the partial thread jack.
If the proper forage for the gape size of small LMB is your only question, then let me add this observation.
If you observe or seine a FHM-heavy pond or creek after their main spawning season, you will be amazed at the size disparity. There will be FHMs larger than the 2" LMB, and I have seen some FHMs that are actually larger than the 3" LMB. However, there will also be lots of tiny and small FHMs that are 30-50% of the size of the LMB fingerlings. Even if those are too large for the LMB gape, there are also FHMs that are 10-20% of the size of the LMB.
Now that I have typed all of this, I do see one concern related to stocking 2-3" LMB in a pond during May with FHMs as the main food source. If the FHMs spawn in that pond in June and July, then there are only going to be adult FHMs in the pond for the new LMB fingerlings - and those FHMs are going to be too large for the bass to eat!
The first BG spawn would probably be a little earlier than the first FHM spawn, so if the pond already had BG before the bass were stocked, then there might be optimal sized forage for the bass a slightly sooner?
However, I think the 2-3" LMB might have to eat insect larva, small crayfish, etc. until they grow enough to eat their fish-based forage.
I don't think I answered your question at all, but I did like your question. Hopefully, expanding the discussion will draw in some more good information.
