The 3-acre pond for those 20 years had little to no structure/vegetation for the YOY to hide. I believe this is the reason that year after year the pond has lost most all of its YOY both LMB & BG. I have adult BG >5" but very few forage fish <5". I posted because my concern is that without the juvenile classes & I have removed 40 adult LMB; I may have as few as 20 adult LMB left in the pond. From my fishing experiences perhaps less.
The pond now has vegetation border around most of the pond, 6-10', wide in some areas. There appears to be a greater abundance of BG this summer but that is just a SWAG. On a foolish whim, I tried stocking tilapia once again. We will see how that turns out. In years past it has been a waste of time & money.
I have done some LMB RW reading within the forum & I am now leaning towards waiting till Spring '26 to stock some new LMB genetics & continue to monitor the RWs. The summer of '25 will be a recovery year for the BG, if all goes as planned.
