That is a great question Mr Cody. I'd be the first to admit I don't understand the reasoning behind not seeing many BG with all of the vids that's I've shot of forage in the pond but with the RW dropping the only thing I can lean toward is a hole in the food chain.
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I'd be happy to hear thoughts or suggestions for sure. Only thing I know to do is pump additional forage in to fill what seems to be an apparent hole in the chain and hope things even back out next year with the BG numbers. Should there be some underperforming LMB in the pond come spring.....well.....I'm not opposed to practicing my filleting skills...
Worse case BD, this forage will be consumed sooner or later. I applaud this decision and I think you will get good results from it. I like the size range for the Shiners. I think they match the LMB at their current stage very well. This boost could have the bonus of growing your LMB significantly before the TP die. This can only help them at the time of the TP die off to consume more. So I do like the "build it and they will come" that you are doing.
Things change rapidly in a pond. All the fish are growing and interacting and all this interaction along with the seasonal impetus affects forage production and populations dynamicly. We are completing a season right now and in your judgment the population of consumable forage was lacking to support growth into the next growing season. I find it very difficult to disagree with you and I think your arguments are sound even if someone might argue they are incorrect.
Bill mentioned if you are having to do this this year, what about next year and so on. I would like to say this. Next year is a different year. Instead of starting with 50 grams of LMB, you are going to have something between 35 to 50 lbs of LMB. There will not be nearly so many TP growing to 4-6 inches as there are this year. Many more of your TP will be consumed and this consumption will drive growth resulting from consumption that was not realized this year because your LMB were just too small and weighed too little to fully utilize them. So don't think that you wlll have supplement like this all the time, particularly with your very limited LMB population posture. Probably, a combination of factors stemming from stocking rates of different fish species culminated in the current status you now observe that you are now responding to with a supplement of forage.
It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so - Will Rogers
